Missouri has enacted a new law restricting access to gender-affirming healthcare for incarcerated transgender people, marking a significant change in how the state’s Department of Corrections is permitted to provide medical treatment and, as a result, forcing their transgender inmates to detransition.

HB 2009, signed into law on 30 June by Governor Mike Kehoe, prohibits the use of state funds for hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgeries intended for gender transition.

The move comes after years of legal and policy changes surrounding transgender healthcare in Missouri prisons. In 2018, a federal court ruling in Hicklin v. Precythe found that the blanket denial of hormone therapy violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, establishing a requirement for individualised medical care in some cases. However, the ruling did not extend to gender-affirming surgeries, which Missouri later restricted through separate legislation in 2023.

As reported by Transitics via Substack, the new provision was added to a broader corrections funding bill and was sponsored by state Rep. Dirk Deaton. During debate on the House floor, Deaton cited shifting legal and political conditions around transgender healthcare and argued that lawmakers should determine how state funds are used for medical treatment in correctional settings.

“Because recall…these are people that have been adjudicated of a crime. They’ve been convicted of a crime. They have been sentenced to prison. They are incarcerated on the taxpayer’s dime, for their room and board and also for their healthcare – paid 100% by the taxpayer. And what is appropriate healthcare under those circumstances, that’s what this speaks to,” Deaton said while speaking on the House floor in March.

Under this new law, the Department of Corrections is required to discontinue state-funded gender transition-related treatments, affecting incarcerated individuals currently receiving hormone therapy as well as those seeking to begin treatment while in custody.