While other countries and more than 20 American states that have banned or restricted abortion and/or so-called "gender-affirming care" for minors, lawmakers in Maine have advanced LD 227, "An Act Regarding Legally Protected Health Care Activity in the State."
If the governor approves the final product, doctors who violate abortion and transgender laws in conservative states would only need to move their practices to Maine to enjoy protection from criminal or civil action. Mike McClellan of the Christian Civic League of Maine says police will not be able to intervene.
"It also even goes to the point that if a doctor in a … Catholic hospital … decides to do an abortion or to do gender transformation work, their administrators – even if the hospital doesn't allow that – their administrators cannot stop it, they cannot sanction, they can't fire that person," he details.
Meanwhile, studies continue to show the harms children suffer from gender manipulation.
"In the U.K., they were stopping all of these proceedings," McClellan notes. "They were stopping puberty blockers because studies had shown them that they were dangerous. A whole bunch of other countries in Europe announced that they were pulling back, that they were seeing that this was not happening as they thought it was going to happen, that this was dangerous for kids."
The bill needs procedural votes before going to Democratic Governor Janet Mills for her signature.
