Edmo, who is due to be released next year after serving time for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy, has been receiving hormone therapy and counseling while incarcerated. But a prison psychiatrist has decreed that the state could not provide the surgery for her, even though she has attempted self-castration.
A trial court ruled that she was entitled to the surgery, and a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit agreed. “It is no leap to conclude that Edmo’s severe, ongoing psychological distress and the high risk of self-castration and suicide she faces absent surgery constitute irreparable harm,” the panel wrote.