Harris dodges questions about support for taxpayer-funded transgender surgery for prisoners

Vice President Kamala Harris refused to say Wednesday if she still supported taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for prisoners.

In an interview with Fox News, Ms. Harris repeatedly said she would “follow the law” if confronted with the issue as president. When pressed to explain that position, Ms. Harris simply repeated that she would follow the law.

The Trump campaign has been running advertisements in swing states that highlight her support for taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for prisoners and detained migrants. It features a clip of Ms. Harris’ 2019 response at an American Civil Liberties Union in which she pledges to ensure that people in prisons can obtain gender transition surgeries through government-funded medical care.

“I will support policies ensuring that federal prisoners and detainees are able to obtain medically necessary care for gender transition, including surgical care, while incarcerated or detained,” she says in the clip.

When pressed if she still supports government-funded transition surgeries, Ms. Harris pivoted to point out that the Trump administration also provided transition services for federal prisoners and undocumented immigrants awaiting trial or deportation.

“I will follow the law and it’s a law that Donald Trump actually followed. You’re probably familiar with it now. It’s a public report that under Donald Trump’s administration, these surgeries were available on a medical necessity basis,” she said.

Ms. Harris also decried the Trump campaign’s ad, saying it was hypocritical for him to make it a campaign issue.

“I think, frankly, that ad from the Trump campaign is a little bit like throwing, you know, stones when you’re living in a glass house,” she said.

Trump appointees at the Bureau of Prisons approved transgender treatments. Only a handful of inmates requested it during his four years in office. Mr. Trump, however, never advocated for transgender surgeries.