Indiana AG vows to fight court ruling demanding baby killer's taxpayer-funded sex change

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, September 26, 2024

The Republican attorney general of Indiana has vowed to fight a recent court ruling that mandates taxpayer-funded sex change procedures for an inmate who is in prison for strangling his 11-month-old stepdaughter to death.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Young granted a preliminary injunction last Tuesday in favor of the ACLU of Indiana, ordering that the Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) must provide prisoner Jonathan C. Richardson with sex change surgery "at the earliest opportunity," according to the order.

"Of course, I disagree, How could you not??" Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita wrote on X in the wake of the ruling. "An Indiana inmate convicted of murder wants our taxpayers to fund their gender-altering surgery! Hoosiers do NOT want this. We're still reviewing the court's opinion, but you can undoubtedly expect our office to appeal this decision."

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Richardson, who now goes by the name Autumn Cordellionè, sued IDOC in August 2023 for violating his rights under the Eighth Amendment by subjecting him to "cruel and unusual punishment" by prohibiting taxpayers from paying for his sex change surgeries in accordance with House Bill 1569, a state law that went into effect in 2023.

The statute states that the state DOC "may not authorize the payment of any money, the use of any state resources, or the payment of any federal money administered by the state to provide or facilitate the provision of sexual reassignment surgery to an offender patient."

With the help of the ACLU, Richardson alleged the statute violated his rights under the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, according to the lawsuit.

The initial complaint claimed that Richardson was diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2020 and has been consistently taking female hormones and testosterone blockers, as well as being provided "panties, make up, and form fitting clothing."

Young ruled that the state law was unconstitutional and that Richardson's need for sex change procedures was "medically necessary" to treat the gender dysphoria that the ACLU claims he has experienced since the age of 6.

"Specifically, Ms. Cordellioné has shown that her gender dysphoria is a serious medical need, and that, despite other treatments Defendant has provided her to treat her gender dysphoria, she requires gender-affirming surgery to prevent a risk of serious bodily and psychological harm," Young wrote.

"Ms. Cordellioné has shown that injunctive relief is necessary," the judge also wrote. "There is no dispute that gender dysphoria is a serious medical condition under the objective prong."

Despite Richardson's request for extensive surgeries that would include breast implants and a tummy tuck among other procedures, Young is only demanding an orchiectomy to remove the testicles and a vaginoplasty, which purports to construct a "neovagina" out of penile tissue.

ACLU of Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk praised Young's ruling in a statement last week.

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

Richardson is serving a 55-year sentence for reckless homicide related to the death of his 11-month-old stepdaughter while his then-wife was at work on Sept. 12, 2001. An appeal from 2003 describes how Richardson was charged in 2002 with the murder of the baby girl, who, according to an autopsy, "died of asphyxiation by manual strangulation."

The ruling comes as the issue of taxpayers paying for these types of procedures has featured in the 2024 presidential election.

In footage from the 2020 election cycle that has since reemerged, Vice President Kamala Harris touted her work "behind the scenes" while serving as attorney general of California to make sure "that every transgender inmate in the prison system would have access to the medical care that they desire and need."

In an ACLU questionnaire she filled out in 2020, Harris affirmed her intention as president that she would "ensure that transgender and nonbinary people who rely on the state for medical care — including those in prison and immigration detention” would be allowed to receive "all necessary surgical care."