Kentucky attorney general finds no requirement to use tax dollars to pay for inmate gender surgeries

Associated Press

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky’s attorney general says the state is under no legal requirement to use taxpayer money to cover the costs of gender-affirming surgeries for people incarcerated in state prisons. The state’s corrections department requested the opinion as it amends regulations regarding medical care for people in prison. Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman was asked whether the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment means the department is required to pay for a gender-affirming surgeries for transgender people in prison. Coleman said Thursday that the opinion saying there is no legal requirement to do so should settle the question “once and for all.”