Court orders Idaho to pay for transgender inmate’s gender confirmation surgery

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Aug. 28 (UPI) — A federal appeals court ruled that the state of Idaho must pay for a transgender inmate’s gender confirmation surgery.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the state to provide Adree Edmo with the surgery, ruling that depriving a transgender inmate who has severe gender dysphoria with gender confirmation surgery is a form of “cruel and unusual punishment.”

The ruling upholds a federal judge’s order that the state pay for the surgery by mid-June 2019.

Doctors diagnosed Edmo, 31, with gender dysphoria in 2012. She repeatedly inflected self-harm and attempted to castrate herself with a razor blade twice, court documents indicate.

“Responsible prison authorities were deliberately indifferent to Edmo’s gender dysphoria, in violation of the Eighth Amendment,” the court said.

The court also established that Edmo had a serious medical need and that the appropriate medical treatment was gender confirmation surgery, which prison authorities had not provided despite full knowledge of Edmo’s “ongoing and extreme suffering and medical needs.”

“They certainly would treat a prisoner with cancer, they treat a prisoner with diabetes or other chronic conditions,” said Deborah Ferguson, an attorney representing Edmo. “So, we have a medically recognized condition that’s very treatable and we have been trying to get her the treatment that she very much needs.”

Idaho Gov. Brad Little called the ruling “extremely disappointing” and plans to appeal it to the Supreme Court, extending the appeals process, which the state said has cost more than $325,000.

“The hardworking taxpayers of Idaho should not be forced to pay for a convicted sex offender’s gender reassignment surgery when it is contrary to the medical opinions of the treating physician and multiple mental health professionals,” Little said.

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