Attorney General Alan Wilson protects taxpayers from funding inmate sex-change surgeries

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – Attorney General Alan Wilson joined 23 other states in a friend-of-the-court brief that supports a state’s right to regulate medicine for the protection of public health and safety, particularly in correctional institutions.

A prisoner in Alaska is demanding to receive their desired “sex-change surgery” at the expense of the facility and Alaska’s taxpayers, even though those procedures are illegal in Alaska and 23 other states. The Eighth Amendment prohibits prison officials from showing “deliberate indifference to serious medical needs of prisoners.” However, it does not give prisoners the right to access any type of medical interventions they desire.

“Prisoners cannot require taxpayers to foot the bill for controversial, risky, and medically unnecessary procedures, Attorney General Wilson stated. “The decision of protecting public health and safety rests with each state’s legislature.”

The brief cites multiple court decisions that highlight the debate surrounding sex-change procedures as treatment for gender dysphoria, as well as the constitutional basis for states to pass their own medical policy decisions.

Attorney General Wilson defends the constitutional authority of states to regulate medical treatment, especially controversial and experimental procedures, and affirms that inmates are not entitled to demand taxpayer-funded sex-change surgeries.

In addition to South Carolina, attorneys general from the following states joined the Indiana and Iowa-led filing: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and the Arizona Legislature.

The full amicus brief can be read here.