State Need Not Cover Trans Inmate’s Surgery, Another Court Says

States don’t have to provide gender affirmation surgery to transgender inmates, the Fifth Circuit said March 29.

The court joined the First Circuit, the only other federal court of appeals to consider the issue, Judge James C. Ho wrote for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

“Under established precedent, it can be cruel and unusual punishment to deny essential medical care to an inmate,” the court said. “But that does not mean prisons must provide whatever care an inmate wants.”

The necessity and efficacy of the surgery is a “matter of significant disagreement within the medical community,” ...