Rosati v. Igbinoso, No. 13-15984 (9th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff, a transgender inmate, filed a pro se suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging that prison officials violated the Eighth Amendment through deliberate indifference to her serious medical needs. Plaintiff alleged that she suffers from severe gender dysphoria for which sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) is the medically necessary treatment, but that prison officials refuse to provide the surgery. The district court dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim. The court concluded that the complaint stated an Eighth Amendment claim upon which relief could be granted where plaintiff plausibly alleges that she has severe gender dysphoria, citing repeated episodes of attempted self-castration despite continued hormone treatment, the medically accepted treatment for her dysphoria is SRS, and prison officials were aware of her medical history and need for treatment, but denied the surgery because of a blanket policy against SRS. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded.
Court Description: Prisoner Civil Rights The panel reversed the district court’s dismissal of a pro se complaint brought by a California state prisoner pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that prison officials were deliberately indifferent to the prisoner’s serious medical needs, in violation of the Eighth Amendment, when they refused to provide sexual reassignment surgery. The panel held that the allegations in the complaint were sufficient to state a claim. The panel held that plaintiff plausibly alleged that her symptoms (including repeated efforts at self-castration) were so severe that prison officials recklessly disregarded an excessive risk to her health by denying sexual reassignment surgery solely on the recommendation of a physician’s assistant with no experience in transgender medicine. The panel expressed no opinion on whether sexual reassignment surgery was medically necessary for plaintiff or whether prison officials have other legitimate reasons for denying her that treatment. The panel further held that on remand, the district court should address the merits of plaintiff’s Equal Protection Claim in the first instance.
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