A judge today ruled against state regulations that ban Medicaid dollars from paying for transgender-related transition services and sex-reassignment surgery.
The presumed result will be that Iowa taxpayers will soon begin paying for “sex-change” surgeries that the Department of Human Services had previously ruled “cosmetic” and medically unnecessary.
But according to the Iowa District Court for Polk County judge’s ruling, DHS attorneys did not even argue whether such services are a justified taxpayer expense. The ruling repeats that attorneys “offered no dispute” to claims the procedures are medically necessary and left their opponents’ arguments “unrefuted by any evidence.”
According to the ruling, “[Plaintiffs argue that] a person’s gender identity is developed early in childhood, has a strong biological basis, cannot be altered, and is not subject to change through outside influence, [and the] DHS does not refute this issue.”
In the end, the judge ruled the DHS could not deny a supposedly “medically necessary” procedure.
In response to the case and its ruling, The FAMiLY LEADER has issued the following statement:
“The real issues – whether transgenderism is biologically fixed and immutable and whether sex-reassignment surgery is medically necessary – weren’t even debated in this case, but conceded by the DHS. Therefore, our disagreement isn’t with the judge, but with the defense. For we believe God designed human biology and that embracing Christ and His design for our lives is the surest path to healing and happiness.”
