California adds Iowa to state’s travel ban over refusal to fund gender transitions

California has added Iowa to a list of states where taxpayer-funded trips are banned, after the state removed gender protections under Medicaid, The Sacramento Bee reported.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced Friday Iowa would become the 11th state on the list after Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed a bill prohibited Medicaid spending on gender transition surgeries.  The Iowa ban will go into effect Oct. 4, The Bee reported.

“The Iowa Legislature has reversed course on what was settled law under the Iowa Civil Rights Act, repealing protections for those seeking gender-affirming healthcare,” Becerra said in a statement received by The Bee. “California has taken an unambiguous stand against discrimination and government actions that would enable it.”

The ban follows the 2016 California law that prevents taxpayer-funded travel to states that pass or repeal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Other states on the list include Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas. 

Reynolds’ ban came after the Iowa Supreme Court decided gender identity protections extended to gender transition surgeries through the Medicaid program, The Bee reported.

“This narrow provision simply clarifies that Iowa’s Civil Rights Act does not require taxpayer dollars to pay for sex reassignment and other similar surgeries,” Reynolds’s spokesman Pat Garrett said in a statement at the time obtained by Fox News “This returns us to what had been the state’s position for years.”