The U.S. Department of Justice has pulled its support for a transgender Georgia prisoner to receive state-funded gender-affirming surgery, criticizing former President Joe Biden’s administration for what it says was favoring politics over the law.
On Friday, the DOJ withdrew its statement of interest in the prisoner’s lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Corrections and others, reversing its previous stance that prisoners are constitutionally entitled to gender-affirming care. The DOJ filed a same-day statement of interest in a similar lawsuit by another transgender Georgia prisoner, saying they are not entitled to surgery as treatment for gender dysphoria.
“The prior administration’s arguments in transgender inmate cases were based on junk science,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said Friday in a press release that accused the Biden administration of abusing the legal system. “States’ limited resources need not be wasted to provide these dubious surgeries to inmates.”
Lawyers for the Georgia prisoners had not responded Monday to questions about the DOJ’s filings.
One prisoner, identified in court records as Jane Doe, brought her case in December 2023. Doe has been incarcerated in men’s facilities since 1992, according to her complaint, which does not disclose the reason for her incarceration.
In January 2024, the DOJ filed a statement of interest in Doe’s case, saying the U.S. Constitution requires prisoners to receive necessary medical care, treatment and services to address serious medical conditions.
In April 2024, U.S. District Judge Michael Brown ordered the state to provide Doe access to breast and buttock padding and hair removal cream while the case was litigated. The state appealed the ruling, but the appeal was dismissed in March of this year when Doe’s lawyers revealed she had been transferred to federal custody pending sentencing on federal criminal charges.
Doe’s case, alleging her constitutional rights are violated by the state’s refusal to provide gender-affirming surgery, remains pending before Brown.
“The most likely outcome is that she will remain in federal custody to serve her sentence,” Doe’s lawyers said in a recent court filing.
A different federal judge in Georgia has the similar case of Ronnie Fuller, who sued the Georgia Department of Corrections and others in January.
Fuller, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2003, wants a mastectomy. He alleged the state refuses to grant his request in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and federal disability law.
Both Doe and Fuller claim they need surgery to treat severe and debilitating gender dysphoria. Doe alleged her condition has involved multiple castration and suicide attempts. Fuller, housed in a women’s prison, said his gender dysphoria causes anxiety, depression and sleeplessness, and affects his ability to eat.
The state has sought to dismiss both cases. It said in case filings the prisoners have failed to show deliberate indifference to serious medical needs.
On Friday, the DOJ said it has disavowed transgender theories relied on by the Biden administration, including those of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
The organization’s standards of care lack scientific integrity, the DOJ said. It said a recent study in the United Kingdom found no evidence that gender-affirmative treatments reduce deaths by suicide among transgender people.
Studies on the topic show different conclusions. A study published by the National Institutes of Health showed gender-affirming medical interventions were associated with lower odds of depression and suicidality, or the risk of suicide, among more than 100 transgender and nonbinary youth.
Another study published in September found increased suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youth in states that had enacted anti-transgender laws.
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