During the September 10 presidential debate between Donald Trump took Kamala Harris to task for her support of taxpayer-funded transgender medical care for incarcerated individuals.

The Harris campaign has offered little clarification in response to media inquiries as to where the Democratic nominee currently stands on the issue but Harris has been quite open about her support for gender transition surgery for inmates.

In 2015, while Harris was California Attorney General, a settlement was reached to transfer a transgender individual to a women’s prison and to provide the inmate with gender transition surgery.

In 2019, during her first presidential bid, Harris responded to a questionnaire from the American Civil Liberties Union which asked if she would use her executive authority, if elected, to ensure that gender transition care–including surgery–would be provided to incarcerated individuals, including prisoners and immigration detainees.

Harris responded, “I will direct all federal agencies responsible for providing essential medical care to deliver transition treatment.”

Why taxpayers should be on the hook to pay for gender transition procedures that some providers deem “medically necessary” but are not of a life-saving nature, is not clear.

The fact that these individuals are in state custody does not entitle them to extraordinary procedures or accomodations at the public’s expense.

The challenges of housing transgender prisoners who were born as males in women’s prisons has also presented prison authorities with problems ranging from rape to the impregnation of fellow inmates by those prisoners.

Taxpayers should not be saddled with the cost of anyone’s gender transition surgery, and they shouldn’t be forced to pay for such procedures on inmates.