Federal prisons would ban gender-affirming care, restrict housing by 'biological sex'
H.R. 1015 — Prison Rape Prevention Act of 2025 · Filed by Nancy Mace (R-SC) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 5, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends federal prison law to require the Bureau of Prisons to house and transport incarcerated people only with others of the same 'biological sex' (defined by reproductive system characteristics), and prohibits the Bureau from furnishing or paying for any 'gender-related medical treatment'—defined to include hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and surgeries related to gender transition, with narrow exceptions for intersex conditions and treatment of complications from prior transition care.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a blanket prohibition on gender-related medical treatment in federal prisons and a housing/transport mandate based on 'biological sex.' Despite the title invoking 'Prison Rape Prevention,' the bill does not establish new safety protocols or address sexual assault directly—it restricts medical access and housing placement for a specific population.
What the text implies
- Prisoners already receiving hormone therapy or puberty blockers will have treatment abruptly discontinued, potentially causing medical harm and psychological distress.
- The definition of 'biological sex' based on reproductive system characteristics may create practical classification problems for intersex individuals and those with prior medical interventions, leading to arbitrary housing assignments.
- Housing restrictions may force transgender and non-binary prisoners into cells with people of their assigned sex at birth, increasing vulnerability to sexual assault and violence—the very harm the bill's title claims to prevent.
- The bill grants the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons broad discretion to identify additional 'gender-related medical treatments' to prohibit, creating regulatory uncertainty and potential for mission creep.
- Carve-outs for intersex conditions and treatment of complications from prior transition care may be difficult to access in practice, as they require physician diagnosis and documentation that may not be available in prison settings.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Incarcerated people lose access to medical care that may be medically necessary or already in progress, and transgender and non-binary prisoners face housing and transportation restrictions that increase vulnerability to violence and isolation. The bill restricts a vulnerable population's medical autonomy and safety without clear public-safety justification.
Named in the bill
Bureau of Prisons, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Title 18 United States Code, Section 3621
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 5 Republicans.
- Feb 5, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 5, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $439,908 in lobbying spend. A filing names 132 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Nancy Mace, the sponsor, reported $8,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Human Rights Campaign — $439,908 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 17, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,540 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal prisons would ban gender-affirming care, restrict housing by 'biological sex'” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr1015 Report an error
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