A state lawyer responds that the law does not disallow surgeries or violate individuals’ rights.
A judge is expected to rule within the next week on a bid to temporarily block an Iowa law that denies mandatory Medicaid coverage to transgender Iowans for transition-related care.
Polk County District Judge David Porter heard arguments Tuesday from the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa that the law is both discriminatory against and betrays an animus toward transgender individuals.
“A law fails when it’s motivated by animus towards a certain group,” Rita Bettis Austen, the ACLU of Iowa’s legal director, said Tuesday. “The division’s sole purpose is to take away this publicly funded, medically necessary care for transgender Iowans on Medicaid, and it does so in a particularly terrible way.”
Assistant Iowa Attorney General Thomas Ogden spoke on behalf of the state Tuesday, arguing that the challenged provision doesn’t bar individuals from surgery or prohibit the government from permitting public money to be spent on it.
“In order to be entitled to any kind of remedy under the civil rights act to begin with, (the plaintiffs) would have to have a violation of their rights,” said Ogden, who added that he doesn’t believe there is proof the law causes irreparable harm against transgender individuals.
More: ACLU sues to halt Medicaid exemption for transition-related surgeries — again
The ACLU of Iowa in May sued to block legislation passed in April that allows government entities to opt out of using public insurance money, including Medicaid, to pay for transition-related surgeries. It was filed on behalf of two transgender Iowans — Mika Covington of central Iowa and Aiden Vasquez of southeast Iowa — and the LGBTQ advocacy group One Iowa.
Added to the health budget bill, the provision allows any state or local government unit or tax-supported district to decline to use public funds for “sex reassignment surgery” or “any other cosmetic reconstructive or plastic surgery procedure related to transsexualism, hermaphroditism, gender identity disorder, or body dysmorphic disorder.”
The law was passed after the Iowa Supreme Court in March ruled that a different ban on using Medicaid funds for transition-related care violated the Iowa Civil Rights Act. The new legislation, in turn, amended the Civil Rights Act.
The lawsuit in question now says the new Medicaid provision runs afoul of the Iowa Constitution. The state Supreme Court did not address that question in its March ruling.
More: Iowa Republican lawmakers ban use of Medicaid dollars on transgender surgery
Pat Garrett, a spokesman for Gov. Kim Reynolds, said when the lawsuit was filed that “we will work with the Iowa Attorney General’s Office to defend this narrow provision clarifying that Iowa’s Civil Rights Act does not require taxpayer dollars to pay for sex reassignment and other similar surgeries — the state’s position for years.”
Porter said he plans to rule on the matter by early next week.
Anna Spoerre is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. She can be reached by email at aspoerre@dmreg.com, by phone at 515-284-8387 or on Twitter at @annaspoerre.
Read or Share this story: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2019/07/09/aclu-lawsuit-iowa-transgender-transition-surgeries-medicaid-coverage-sex-reassignment-injunction/1684099001/