While concerns over the future of gender affirming care for trans youth in the US are growing, after the House of Representatives this week passed a last minute addition to a military policy bill that would bar the transgender children of service members from gender affirming medical care.

The added language sparked opposition from some Democrats who usually vote in favor of what's typically a bipartisan bill.

Just two New Jersey Democrats joined House Republicans in voting in favor of the bill.

That's Mikie Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer, who are also both candidates in the governor's race.

Cheryl, in a statement said she voted in favor even though she was, quote, disgusted by the anti-trans gender language in the bill.

The vote comes just a week after the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments over whether to uphold a Tennessee law that bans minors from accessing gender affirming care.

Here in New Jersey, access to those treatments are currently protected.

But that hasn't stopped fears growing from the trans community that those rights could be taken away.

Senior correspondent Johanna Girgis has the story.

Our patients are alarmed, to put it mildly, but in a state of panic.

Realistically, Dr. Jonathan Keith is a plastic surgeon who works with transgender individuals and those questioning their gender identity.

He says they're all watching nervously as the US Supreme Court considers whether to uphold a ban in the state of Tennessee on puberty blockers and other hormone therapy for transgender teens.

I think parents of transgender young people across the country are really scared because this care is in jeopardy in so many ways.

It's already not able to be accessed in so many states.

Right now, 24 states, including Tennessee, have passed such bans.

Jamie Briggs, a HOF, has a 17 year old daughter, Rebecca, who did have access to those treatments here in New Jersey.

I am not sure what life would look like if Rebecca didn't have access to the medical care that is evidence based and medically necessary.

What I know is that when she was able to step into her identity as who she is, she thrived and really like her, she has a light in her that just, you know, exploded everywhere.

Prior to her transition, she really struggled with with depression and anxiety and navigating the world.

Something Samuel Hollaback says he experienced as he was going through puberty before transitioning.

Honestly, if I could go back in time, I would have wanted to go on puberty blockers because that would have given me more time.

I would not have felt the resentment and the fear and the pain of my body growing and changing into something that I didn't recognize that I wasn't comfortable with anymore.

When you have a young patient and a family that is coming to grips with the new diagnosis of gender dysphoria, but they're looking down the barrel of puberty and having to live in the body with the secondary sexual characteristics that don't match their gender identity.

That's almost a death sentence for a lot of these young people.

Suicidal ideation and suicide completion is very, very high in this patient population, upwards of 70% over the course of a lifetime with the diagnosis of gender dysphoria as untreated.

Dr. Keith says these hormone therapies are similar to those given, for example, to young boys with growth challenges.

However, the Tennessee law very specifically only limits hormone therapy for transgender youth, leading the plaintiffs to call it discrimination based on sex.

Now, based on oral arguments, the justices seem poised to leave it to the states.

And while transgender people here in New Jersey do have access to hormone therapy, many are concerned that national bans could be put into place under a Trump administration and that the laws guaranteeing their care here in New Jersey could end with the Murphy administration.

There are some statutes that specifically protect health care, access for transgender people and more generally prohibit discrimination against transgender people in New Jersey.

But it is true that the sort of strongest protections that also protect folks coming from out of state and the ability to provide care in state, that those are codified in an executive order.

Because of that uncertainty, medical providers and others are seeing folks in the transgender community trying to get ahead of those changes.

We have patients calling every day to see if they can move their surgery date up as early as possible.

Everybody wanted to have their surgery before the change of administration in January.

Obviously, that's not possible.

Our surgical schedule is booked out until January 2026, so we were already kind of set for what we were going to do.

But we're trying to adjust.

We're trying to move people up as much as possible.

The most important thing is that medical care decisions should be made between medical care providers and families that legislators don't belong in, that.

And if this is upheld, then it's a really scary prospect for all kinds of individuals and no medical care.

If we decide that legislators and the courts can determine who has access to what care.

That's just a really big, devastating impact to medical autonomy.

The court is expected to decide the case in June.

For now, uncertainty abounds.

For this very small but very shaken community.

I'm joanna Geiger's, Andrew Spotlight News.