OAN Staff James Meyers
8:17 AM – Tuesday, September 24, 2024
A federal judge has ruled that it would be unconstitutional for an Indiana prison to deny an inmate a sex reassignment surgery following the inmate’s lawsuit against the facility.
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the Indian Department of Corrections last year on behalf of a transgender inmate, Jonathan C. Richardson, also known as Autumn Cordellionè, who was convicted of strangling his 11-month-old stepdaughter to death in 2001.
Indiana law prohibits the Department of Corrections from using taxpayer dollars to fund sex reassignment surgeries for inmates. However, the ACLU argues in the lawsuit, filed on August 28, 2023, that the law is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishment.”
According to the ACLU lawsuit, the surgery for Richardson, who is currently serving a 55-year prison sentence for reckless homicide, “is a medical necessity.”
Judge Richard Young agreed with the claims and sided in favor of Cordellioné last week.
“Specifically, Ms. Cordellioné has shown that her gender dysphoria is a serious medical need, and that, despite other treatments Defendant has provided her to treat her gender dysphoria, she requires gender-affirming surgery to prevent a risk of serious bodily and psychological harm,” the ruling states.
According to the order, the Department Of Corrections must now take “all reasonable actions” to make sure Cordellioné undergoes sex reassignment surgery.
The decision was met with opposition. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, stated in a post on X that his office will review the judge’s ruling, “but you can undoubtedly expect our office to appeal this decision.”
“An Indiana inmate convicted of murder wants our taxpayers to fund their gender-altering surgery! Hoosiers do NOT want this” Rokita said.
The original filing by the ACLU claimed that Cordellioné was diagnosed in 2020 with gender dysphoria and prescribed female hormones and testosterone blockers, both of which he has “consistently taken since that time.”
“Accordingly, at this point gender-affirming surgery is necessary so that her physical identity can be aligned with her gender identity and so her gender dysphoria can be ameliorated,” the lawsuit states.
“She believes that the only remedy for her persistent gender dysphoria, and the serious harm it causes her, is to receive gender-affirming surgery, specifically an orchiectomy and vaginoplasty,” it said.
Furthermore, the lawsuit claimed Cordellioné has identified as a woman since six-years-old and the inmate is “a woman trapped in a man’s body.”
Court documents revealed that Cordellioné strangled his then-wife’s 11-month-year old daughter to death while she was at work on September, 12, 2001.
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