Idaho Asks to Halt Sex-reassignment Surgery Pending Appeal to U.S. Supreme Court

BOISE, Idaho (KLIX)-Idaho is appealing to the Unites States Supreme Court to overturn a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals order that requires the state to provide sex-reassignment surgery to an inmate. On Thursday Gov. Brad Little said the state filed petitions with the U.S. Supreme Court to appeal the Ninth Circuit's ruling requiring Idaho to pay for the sex-reassignment surgery of Adree Edmo, a convicted sex offender.

Edmo, previously known as Mason Edmo, was sentenced in 2011 to three to seven years in prison on charges of felony sexual abuse of a child under the age of 16. Edmo sued the state over the sex reassignment surgery which the state has been fighting ever since.

According to the governor's office, in 2018 a federal district judge overruled a physician's assessment that the reassignment surgery was not necessary. Idaho then appealed to the Ninth Circuit of Court of Appeals which sided with the district judge's ruling; A request for a rehearing was denied.

In addition to an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Idaho has filed a request to pause the required surgery until a decision is made.