Indiana Judge rules state must provide gender-affirming surgery to inmate

INDIANAPOLIS -- On Tuesday, the U.S. District Court granted the ACLU of Indiana a preliminary injunction in its case of Autumn Cordellioné, a transgender woman who was denied gender-affirming surgery while currently in the custody of the Indiana Department of Corrections.

"The ACLU of Indiana argued in court earlier this year that Indiana’s law banning gender-affirming surgery in prisons, passed in 2023, violates the Eighth Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment," the ACLU said in a statement after the ruling was announced.

"The court agreed that Ms. Cordellioné and the ACLU of Indiana established that gender-confirming surgery is a medically necessary treatment option for some individuals with gender dysphoria."

In October of 2002, Cordellioné, who at the time went by the name of Jonathon C. Richardson, was convicted of felony murder after a jury found that he was responsible for the strangulation death of an 11-month-old girl. 

He was sentenced to 55 years in prison after a doctor testified that the girl died of asphyxiation as a result of manual strangulation.

The court's ruling Tuesday means an order was issued to the Indiana Department of Corrections saying it must provide Cordellioné with gender-affirming surgery at the earliest opportunity.

“Today marks a significant victory for transgender individuals in Indiana’s prisons," said ACLU of Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk. "Denying evidence-based medical care to incarcerated people simply because they are transgender is unconstitutional. We are pleased that the Court agreed.”

Earlier this year, Cordellionè sued a prison chaplain who allegedly prohibited her from wearing a hijab outside her cell.