State-sponsored travel, beginning in October, has been banned by California after steps were taken by the Hawkeye State to prevent controversial gender transition surgeries from being covered under taxpayer-funded Medicaid program.
California Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, accused Iowa’s government of discrimination and extended the travel blacklist on Friday.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in May signed a bill that banned Medicaid spending on gender transition surgeries after the surgeries were ruled by the state Supreme Court as being expendable to the taxpayer-funded program.
California, under a 2016 state law, has the power to ban state-funded travel to states where laws preventing discrimination based on gender identity, expression, or sexual orientation are repealed.
Becerra, who has no problem with radical sex changing procedures, told the Sacramento Bee that, “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 and that California has taken an unambiguous stand against discrimination and government actions that would enable it.”
However, Reynolds has defended the bill as a narrow provision that clarifies Iowa’s longstanding state policy in response to the Supreme Court ruling. Presently, a lawsuit challenging the new bill that so many people in the Hawkeye State favor is before the Iowa Supreme Court.
