Fox News Host Calls Surgeries For Trans Inmates a ‘Complete Scam’

You could set your watch to Laura Ingraham, although I'm not sure why you'd want to.

The reliably reprehensible Fox News host interviewed Idaho Gov. Brad Little about his fight to deny gender confirmation surgery to Adree Edmo, a transgender woman who recently won a historic ruling mandating her right to affirming care. On August 23, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that denying her "medically necessary treatment" for gender dysphoria constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment."

Little, a Republican, has vowed to appeal the ruling. In a Tuesday appearance on Ingraham's The Ingraham Angle, he said the decision sets a "bad precedent" and complained it was too "expensive" to enforce.

"It's contrary to the health professionals that we've had reviewing inmate Edmo's record," Little said, claiming the case is "another example of an activist court getting in the middle of something and creating a precedent that's going to be expensive to the taxpayers of Idaho and potentially all the taxpayers of the United States."

Ingraham was more colorful in her assessment of the ruling. She said that providing gender-confirmation surgeries for trans inmates is a "complete scam."

"I think people watching across the country, governor, see these kinds of stories and they feel helpless because unelected judges, you know, they're life tenure on the court, and they feel like, what happened to my country, what happened to common sense?" she responded. "I think people really feel like they've lost the culture, and it's a sense of helplessness and... sadness at the same time."

Although Ingraham and Little characterize the Ninth Circuit ruling as akin to a government handout, judges said the unanimous decision was motivated by Edmo's "ongoing and extreme suffering and medical needs."

Court documents report that Edmo, who is currently being held at the Idaho State Correctional Center, was refused gender confirmation surgery by her facility for five years, which caused her severe anxiety and distress. In 2015, she attempted to castrate herself "using a disposable razor blade."

"Before doing so, she left a note to alert officials that she was not 'trying to commit suicide,' and was instead 'only trying to help' herself,'" her attorneys say.

Thus far, circuit courts have split on the issue of whether trans inmates are entitled to receive gender-affirming care. The First and Fifth Circuits have sided against the rights of transgender prisoners, meaning the issue could end up eventually being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has held that confirmation surgeries are not only "effective" in treating the gender dysphoria experienced by transgender prisoners, but that they are also "necessary."

It's no surprise where Ingraham stands on the subject, given her long record of anti-LGBTQ+ remarks. In the past, the conservative talking head has said she would rather wear "adult diapers" than use the same restroom as a trans person and claimed that allowing young children to transition is tantamount to "child abuse." She has also said that legalizing same-sex marriage would result in polygamy and incest.

In 2018, advertisers pulled sponsorship from her show en masse after she mocked Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg in a tweet.

Advertisers haven't responded to her most recent jab at transgender people, but if they need any advice on whether to continue doing business with Ingraham, they should take it from her gay brother, Curtis Ingraham. In a 2018 interview with The Daily Beast, he repeatedly called his sibling a "monster."

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