Trending
CHARLESTON -- For the second time this month, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is appealing a federal appeals court ruling directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, this time over a state prohibition on funding gender reassignment surgeries for adults on state assistance.
Morrisey said the Attorney General's Office filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit decision in April in favor of an in-state individual seeking state-funded gender reassignment surgery.
"We strongly disagree with this decision," Morrisey said. "We believe it applies the wrong standard of review in a case like this, and it certainly comes to the wrong result."
In an 8-6 decision, the 4th Circuit ruled in favor of West Virginia resident Shauntae Anderson and a defendant in North Carolina, where state laws and regulations were blocking the defendants from access to gender reassignment surgeries. Anderson was challenging the former state Department of Health and Human Resources and a 2004 law that bans the state's Medicaid program from using taxpayer dollars from paying for gender-affirming surgeries.
The decision paves the way for state managed healthcare plans to pay for these kinds of surgeries. The majority of the 4th Circuit determined the state laws being challenged violated the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause.
The Attorney General's Office argued in court briefs that the ban on gender reassignment surgeries was due to the cost, though state Medicaid does cover medication for gender-affirming care for adults.
"Our state's Medicaid system made a reasonable decision to reserve scarce funding for medically necessary treatments, not elective surgery," Morrisey said. "It's a state that is trying to help ensure we're covering people with heart disease, with diabetes, and all sorts of medical conditions. We're not a rich state. We can't afford to do everything. That's one of the challenges we have with this mandate."
Andrew Schneider, executive director of LGBTQ rights group Fairness West Virginia, said in a statement Thursday that other states that allow for public funding of gender reassignment surgeries see no significant increases in costs.
"West Virginia has a moral obligation to care for its vulnerable and marginalized citizens, and Patrick Morrisey's decision to appeal this case to the U.S. Supreme Court is at odds with this sacred duty. Gender-affirming care is medically necessary, and Patrick Morrisey has no business deciding what health care people can receive."
This is the second decision from the 4th Circuit this month that Morrisey is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. Two weeks ago, Morrisey announced that the Attorney General's Office filed a petition with the Supreme Court after a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit blocked enforcement in April of House Bill 3293, relating to single-sex participation in interscholastic athletic events. The law is also known as the Save Women's Sports Act.
HB 3293, passed by the West Virginia Legislature in 2021, requires student-athletes in middle school, high school or college to participate in sports that match the student's sex assigned at the time of their birth. The law applies to sports regulated by the NCAA and other college interscholastic organizations.
Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 13-year-old girl cross country and track athlete who has identified as a girl since third grade and takes puberty-blocking medication, filed a lawsuit against HB 3293 in May 2021 shortly after the law went into effect. Pepper-Jackson and her mother are represented by Lambda Legal, the state and national chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, and law firm Cooley LLP.