A transgender individual has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to challenge the executive order removing biological men from women’s prisons.
“The Attorney General shall ensure that the Bureau of Prisons revises its policies concerning medical care to be consistent with this order, and shall ensure that no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex,” the order says.
The plaintiff, who uses the name “Maria Moe,” alleges the order violates “due process rights” and the “Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.”
“If Maria Moe is transferred to a men’s facility, she will not be safe,” the lawsuit, first reported by Reuters, claims. “She will be at an extremely high risk of harassment, abuse, violence, and sexual assault. She may be subject to strip searches by male correctional officers.”
“Denying Maria Moe this medically necessary healthcare would constitute deliberate indifference to her serious medical needs and would violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment,” the filing adds.
Some female inmates urged Trump to reverse the Biden-era policies allowing transgender individuals to be placed in women’s prisons.
Rhonda Fleming, a federal prisoner serving a 27-year sentence for Medicare fraud at Carswell Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, recently filed a lawsuit challenging the housing of biological men in women’s prisons.
“Trump tried to help in 2018 by changing the policy when I initially filed on this, but as soon as he was out of office, Biden overturned everything he did and brought even more men into the prison,” Fleming said.
