(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling throwing out a lawsuit involving the payment for sex-change surgeries. The lawsuit was brought by Mika Covington, Aiden Vasquez, and the group One Iowa, which sought to overturn a law passed in the last days of the 2019 legislative session that allows government entities to opt-out of using Medicaid, to pay for transition-related surgeries.

The legislature’s move followed a March 2018 Iowa Supreme Court ruling that the ban on using Medicaid funds for transition-related care was discriminatory under the Iowa Civil Rights Act. The Appeals Court upheld the district court ruling — saying the two had not exhausted their administrative appeals — and until their Medicaid providers deny them coverage, the controversy is purely abstract because they have not been adversely affected in a concrete way.