The Democratic-controlled Maine Legislature on Friday passed a bill that would protect abortion and gender transition surgeons from facing lawsuits for providing services to minors.
The bill, LD 227, would protect those who assist or provide medical services that are illegal in other states, such as abortion, gender reassignment surgery, and hormone therapy. It also creates a private right of action to seek damages against state law enforcement, prosecutors, and other officials who enforce each state’s laws, even if the law is upheld as constitutional by a federal appeals court. It turns out.
The state’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills is expected to sign the bill, and Maine voters will act to elect enough Republicans to “take back at least one House” in the November election. “We have to,” Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby said in an interview with Fox News Digital. Thursday.
“That’s the only way we’re going to make any significant changes in the face of this law,” Libby said. “They are taking away parental rights, and there is no doubt that that is overwhelmingly unpopular with the people of Maine.”
Maine considers bill that would establish ‘legal rights’ to abortion, transgender surgeries
The Maine Legislature passed LD227 last week. He is now sitting at the governor’s desk. (Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Maine’s LD 227 is part of a broader nationwide effort by Blue state lawmakers to protect health care providers who perform abortions and transgender surgeries on minors who do not have the full support of their parents. More than a dozen states have introduced shield laws to protect abortion providers from investigations outside the state where abortions are illegal.
It would also prohibit “interference” with abortion and gender reassignment procedures, legally protect health care workers from lawsuits, and potentially allow the concealment of medical records from plaintiffs seeking lawsuits against health care providers. .
Republicans opposed to the bill say it could allow the inadvertent “kidnapping” of juveniles from states with more restrictive access to such procedures if they are brought across state lines to Maine. Warning that there is sex.
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Pro-choice demonstrators rally for abortion rights in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., in 2022. LD227 was passed by the Maine State House last week. (Jose Luis Magana/AFP/AFP via Getty Images)
The bill comes after 16 Tennessee attorneys general, led by Jonathan Scumetti, sent a letter to Gov. Janet Mills, Attorney General Aaron Frey, and state legislative leadership calling the bill “state-sanctioned culture war litigation tourism.” It was submitted after criticizing it as a novel initiative in the field.
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Abortion is legal in Maine until the term of a woman’s pregnancy. Last year, Congress also approved several transitional drugs for 16- and 17-year-olds, including puberty blockers and hormones, without parental consent.
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A transgender flag on a pole. LD 227 protects transgender surgeries on children and protects health care workers from lawsuits. (Getty Images)
At least 23 states restrict or ban transgender surgical procedures on minors. Supporters of Maine’s bill, which includes a family planning system, say it would provide much-needed protections for health care workers in the state.
Fox News’ Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.
