American Express came under pressure Tuesday to ensure that its healthcare plans exclude “gender-affirming care” for minors from a young woman who regrets her treatment.
Soren Aldaco told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting that her mother’s employer-sponsored benefits plan covered her gender transition, starting with cross-sex hormones at age 17 and culminating in a double mastectomy at 19.
Now 23, Ms. Aldaco has sued her doctors and counselors for malpractice — but said businesses that offer “gender-affirming care” for minors in their health plans also bear responsibility.
“Every company that includes these interventions in its benefits plan is a link in the chain between a confused child and an irreversible outcome,” Ms. Aldaco, a prominent detransitioner and Independent Women ambassador, said in a video message to shareholders.
Her statement came in support of Proposal 4, a shareholder resolution backed by the Alliance Defending Freedom asking for an analysis of the “legal, regulatory, political, reputational, and other relevant risks of providing transgender treatments for minors on its healthcare plans.”
“My mom went to work every day not fully realizing her benefits package was underwriting my destruction,” Ms. Aldaco said. “I’m asking you to support this proposal not as a political statement, but as basic due diligence. Children cannot consent to decisions they cannot developmentally understand. The adults and institutions around them have to be the ones who pause.”
The resolution comes with opponents of “gender-affirming care” for minors expanding their advocacy from Congress and the state legislatures to the corporate boardrooms.
Last month, the Heritage Foundation brought a resolution asking the company to report back on its charitable giving, specifically its support for organizations like the Human Rights Campaign that back gender-transition drugs and surgeries for minors.
The IBM Board of Directors opposed the proposal in its proxy statement, saying the company already provides transparency on its philanthropy. The resolution was ultimately rejected, as reported by the Herzog Foundation’s The Lion.
The same fate is likely to befall Proposal 4. The American Express Board of Directors recommended a “no” vote, arguing that its healthcare plan selection process “already incorporates consideration of relevant risks.”
“We are already transparent about the total compensation and benefits we provide to our colleagues, therefore the requested report would impose additional costs and burdens without commensurate benefit for shareholders and could introduce additional risks related to sensitive colleague health information,” the board said in its 2026 Proxy Statement.
What American Express isn’t especially transparent about is the extent of its “gender-affirming care” coverage for minors.
The board neither confirmed nor denied that its insurance plans include such benefits. Proposal 8 cited the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which gave American Express a perfect score of 100 in 2026.
“To get 100, American Express Company reported that it adopted radical adolescent transgender treatments recommended by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), a group widely criticized for its ideological bias and lack of scientific rigor,” the proposal said. “These treatments include gender transition surgery (including chest surgeries in adolescence), cross-sex hormone therapy, menstrual suppression, and puberty blockers.”
The HRC index score contained a caveat, saying that American Express “has not yet submitted a 2026 CEI survey.”
In its statement, the board said it no longer participates in the HRC survey, “so a stated foundation of the proposal no longer exists.”
The Washington Times has reached out to American Express for comment.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ group, said that such measures harm transgender children by denying them “medically necessary healthcare.”
“Rather than protecting kids, these laws are preventing parents and young people from making informed medical decisions, and doctors and health care providers from providing best-practice care to their patients,” the HRC said on its “Get the Facts About Gender-Affirming Care” website page.
Alexandra Gaiser, Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel, noted that 27 states have banned gender-transition medical treatment for minors since the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision upholding Tennessee’s law.
“Those states include Florida, Arizona, and Utah, where American Express has major offices,” Ms. Gaiser said Tuesday in a statement. “American Express appears to playing with fire by ignoring its shareholders and paying for children to receive these life-altering drugs. Companies like American Express should listen to courageous voices like Ms. Aldaco’s and ensure their health insurance plans protect their employees, not pay for harm to their children.”
Tim Schwarzenberger, director of corporate engagement for the faith-based group Inspire Investing, said shareholders are best served when companies stay focused on their core business and avoid “highly contested social issues that create reputational and financial risk.”
“It’s deeply troubling that American Express appears to be paying for these irreversible interventions without clearly disclosing the scope of that coverage to investors who have a right to know,” Mr. Schwarzenberger said. “These treatments raise serious medical, legal, and fiduciary concerns, particularly given growing global scrutiny and shifting standards of care.”
American Express is expected to release the results of its shareholder vote in the next few days.
