Gay.com
Brazil’s public health system will begin providing free gender-reassignment operations in compliance with a court order, the Health Ministry said Friday.
Ministry spokesman Edmilson Oliveira da Silva said the government would not appeal Wednesday’s ruling by a panel of federal judges giving the government 30 days to offer the procedure or face fines of US$5,000 a day.
“The health minister was prompted by the judges’ decision,” Silva said. “But we already had a technical group studying the procedure with the idea of including it among the procedures that are covered.”
Federal prosecutors from Rio Grande do Sul state had argued that sexual-reassignment surgery is covered under a constitutional clause guaranteeing medical care as a basic right.