California attorney general to prohibit taxpayer-funded travel to Iowa over transition-related surgery restrictions

California has banned taxpayer-funded travel to Iowa because of the state's new law restricting health care for transgender Iowans seeking transition-related care.

California's attorney general announced Friday that the state will prohibit state-funded and state-sponsored travel to Iowa because of its 2019 law that exempts transition surgery from being covered under taxpayer-funded health care systems like Medicaid.

The travel ban goes into effect on Oct. 4.

“California has taken an unambiguous stand against discrimination and government actions that would enable it," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

Since 2017, a California law has prohibited taxpayer-funded travel to states that limit gender protections. Iowa is the 11th state subject to California's travel ban.

Pat Garrett, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, declined on Tuesday to comment on the ban. He reiterated instead the governor's position on the law.

"This is a narrow provision clarifying that the Iowa’s Civil Rights Act does not require taxpayer dollars to pay for sex reassignment and other similar surgeries. This has been the state’s position for years," Garrett said in an email.

In April, the Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature voted to allow any state or local government unit or tax-supported district to decline to use public funds for “sex reassignment surgery” or “any other cosmetic reconstructive or plastic surgery procedure related to transsexualism, hermaphroditism, gender identity disorder, or body dysmorphic disorder."

The provision, added to a budget bill in the final days of the session, was in response to an Iowa Supreme Court ruling in March that struck down a ban on Medicaid payments for “surgeries for the purpose of sex reassignment.”

"The Iowa Legislature has reversed course on what was settled law under the Iowa Civil Rights Act, repealing protections for those seeking gender-affirming healthcare," Becerra added in his statement.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa in May filed a lawsuit challenging the new law. The group filed the suit on behalf of the LGBTQ advocacy group One Iowa and two transgender Iowans, Mika Covington of central Iowa and Aiden Vasquez of southeast Iowa.

In July, a Polk County judge dismissed it, ruling it was too early for the courts to assess the validity of the law. The ACLU has appealed the ruling.

Katie Akin and Barbara Rodriguez are politics reporters for the Register. Reach Akin at kakin@registermedia.com or at 515-284-8041. Reach Rodriguez at bcrodriguez@registermedia.com.

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