(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – In a legal development that has outraged social conservatives, a federal judge has ruled against a state of West Virginia policy that bans “gender transforming surgeries” of transgender individuals from being funded by Medicaid.
Judge Robert Chambers of the Southern District of West Virginia declared that the federal and state program must pay for surgeries such as vaginoplasty or mastectomy for patients with gender dysphoria.
Chambers, appointed by President Bill Clinton, argued that transgender individuals must be granted the same treatment as patients with other medical conditions because otherwise the state commits discrimination, The Washington Times reported.
It is noted that under the state’s existing policy, a woman diagnosed with breast cancer can have a mastectomy covered by Medicaid, but a “transgender man” – or a woman claiming to be a man – cannot do the same with federal and state funding.
The lawsuit against West Virginia was filed by a “transgender man” seeking a mastectomy and a “transgender woman” seeking a vaginoplasty and breast surgery with Medicaid money, citing the Constitution’s equal protection clause.
“It is undisputed that the criteria determining whether or not such treatment is covered under the Medicaid Program hinges on a diagnosis — but when treatment is precluded for a diagnosis based on one’s gender identity, such exclusion invidiously discriminates on the basis of sex and transgender status,” wrote Judge Chambers.
He cited Dr. Loren Schechter, a plastic surgeon from Chicago, who testified that the construction of a vagina – vaginoplasty – could be performed to a “non-transgender woman” lacking a vagina or to a “transgender patient.”
Court papers noted that only about 0.6% of the American population identifies as transgender, but according to Judge Chambers, the number does not matter.
He supported his ruling with the 2022 ruling of the US Supreme Court in Bostock v. Clayton County that employers cannot discriminate against LGBTQ employees.
“Protecting and advancing health care for transgender people is vital, sound, and just. Transgender West Virginia Medicaid participants deserve to have equal access to the same coverage for medically necessary health care that cisgender Medicaid participants receive as a matter of course,” said pro-LGBT lawyer Avatara Smith-Carrington.
“It is not shocking that a Clinton-appointed federal judge is attempting to equate mastectomies and breast reconstruction for women who have been afflicted with cancer to optional transgender surgeries. The left has apparently gone completely off their rocker and every woman in West Virginia should be appalled,” reacted Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government.
