As a matter of constitutional rights and basic decency, prisoners — including military prisoners — are entitled to proper care for their serious medical conditions. Yet, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other officials continue to deny medically necessary care to Chelsea Manning, the military prisoner formerly known as Pfc. Bradley Manning, who was convicted in August 2013 of leaking a vast cache of classified government documents.

Her ill-treatment is no minor lapse. On the day after her sentencing to a 35-year prison term, Private Manning publicly declared herself a transgender woman, along with her wish to begin hormone therapy “as soon as possible.” Clinical evaluations since have confirmed the need for care that includes hormone treatment, psychotherapy with someone qualified to treat gender dysphoria, and access to grooming standards for female prisoners — allowing her to grow longer hair, for example, to express her gender identity. A failure to follow this standard protocol for people with Private Manning’s medical condition can have a dire impact — creating a growing risk of serious depression, self-mutilation and suicide.

The military’s backward policy against providing hormone therapy or sexual reassignment surgery has left Private Manning, who is incarcerated at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., without essential treatment for well over a year now. Repeated requests for treatment have been denied or totally ignored.

In September, Private Manning filed a federal lawsuit seeking to compel the missing medical treatment. The complaint filed on her behalf by lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union and her court-martial attorney, David Coombs, asserted that the withheld medical care amounts to a violation of her constitutionally protected rights.