Putting biologically male transgender inmates into a woman’s prison predictably leads to pregnancy and other problems for inmates and prison officials. The Daily Mail reports on an example in New Jersey:
Two women at New Jersey‘s only all-women’s prison have both fallen pregnant after having sex with transgender inmates…It is unclear if the women had sex with the same transgender inmate, or if it was two different inmates. Edna Mahan [Correctional Facility] houses 27 transgender prisoners, and over 800 women altogether. It is also unclear how far along the two inmates are, and whether they plan to continue with their respective pregnancies. An investigation has been launched.
The correctional facility began to house transgender women – including those that have yet to undergo gender reassignment surgery – last year. That came as part of a settlement following a lawsuit brought by a trans woman and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Jersey. ACLU legal director Jeanne LoCicero defended on Tuesday the policy, saying it ensured the rights of trans prisoners were not violated. ‘[It’s] in line with New Jersey’s strong anti-discrimination laws that prevent discrimination and harassment on the basis of gender identity,’ she told local news outlet NJ.com.
Edna Mahan, the only women’s prison in the Garden State, does not require transgender inmates to proceed with reassignment surgery in order to be housed at the correctional.
As the lawyer John Hinderaker sarcastically observes:
This investigation could be really groundbreaking. If conducted by biologists, it might finally solve the age-old mystery of how women (actual women) get pregnant……
The prospect of incarceration is horrifying. I imagine that a large majority of men, if given the choice, would opt to be incarcerated in a women’s prison for a number of reasons beginning with safety. Until recently, that wouldn’t have been possible. But today, in what we might call the Shania Twain era (“Man…I feel like a woman!”), a transfer request is apparently all it takes…..
New Jersey’s government may have been too blindly progressive to see this coming. But it should have been obvious, since inmates complained about the policy of housing biologically male transgender inmates with women, based on things that foreshadowed these pregnancies, like earlier reports of sexual activity between women in the prison and transgender inmates:
In 2021, two Edna Mahan prisoners filed a lawsuit seeking for the gender identity policy to be revoked, after they were allegedly harassed by transgender prisoners. The women also claimed the transgender inmates were engaging in sexual activity with cisgender prisoners.
