{"id":2194658,"date":"2024-03-07T08:17:02","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T13:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/shield-law-to-protect-transgender-care-proposed-in-maine\/"},"modified":"2024-03-07T08:17:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T13:17:02","slug":"shield-law-to-protect-transgender-care-proposed-in-maine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/shield-law-to-protect-transgender-care-proposed-in-maine\/","title":{"rendered":"Shield law to protect transgender care proposed in Maine"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fshield-law-to-protect-transgender-care-proposed-in-maine%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2194658&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>(The Center Square) \u2013 Protecting doctors performing \u201cgender affirming\u201d health care procedures from lawsuits is in a Maine proposal known as a \u201cshield law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Critics of the plan from Maine lawmakers say parental rights would be stripped.<\/p>\n<p> The proposal, which is pending before the Legislature\u2019s Committee on Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services, seeks to protect patients and health care providers in Maine who perform transgender care, abortions or provide in-vitro fertilization, procedures that are illegal in some other states. The measure\u2019s primary sponsor, state Rep. Anne Perry, D-Calais, said the protections are needed to shield patients and medical professionals who perform gender-affirming and other reproductive care from prosecution by other states. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cWe have Mainers and patients who come to Maine in need of reproductive health care or gender-affirming care, and as a Legislature, we cannot ignore this,\u201d Perry said in testimony on Tuesday. \u201cDuring a time when we are seeing an increase in restrictions on abortion and gender-affirming care across the country, Maine needs to be a leader and defend our patients and providers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham called the proposal \u201cvile\u201d and said it ignores a \u201cplethora of extremely dangerous problems\u201d with the legislation.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cPump the brakes,\u201d the Winter Harbor Republican said in testimony. \u201cWe are talking about children getting transgender transition treatment and surgeries. We cannot ignore the reality that these treatments and surgeries are irreversible. They have lifelong consequences on these young people\u2019s reproductive function as well as their general health.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Groups backing the proposal say the protections are needed with states like Alabama pledging to prosecute physicians in Maine and other states that perform transgender care for their residents.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cTo ensure equal access to treatment for all transgender youth, we must eliminate barriers to gender-affirming care, such as financial burdens, insurance coverage, and geographical limitations,\u201d Chris McLaughlin, executive director of the Maine Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, said in Tuesday\u2019s testimony.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThese barriers not only harm individuals seeking care, but also perpetuate harmful stereotypes and discrimination against the transgender community as a whole,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p> But dozens of Mainers testified in opposition to the proposal, many of them saying the legislation would trample on parental rights while raising myriad legal, moral and ethical concerns.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe medical treatments referenced in this bill are so complex and life altering that allowing such to happen without proper consent, involvement of parents and having a support system in place will further place our younger and most vulnerable kids at extreme risk,\u201d Peter Bragdon, a registered nurse from West Gardiner, told the panel during Tuesday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n<p> Last year, Gov. Janet Mills signed into law a \u201cfirst of its kind in the nation\u201d bill allowing access to gender-affirming care without parental consent or notification for 16- and 17-year-olds.<\/p>\n<p> Earlier this year, lawmakers considered a proposal that would have prohibited Maine from cooperating with law enforcement from states that have banned gender-affirming care who are investigating people who seek treatment in Maine. But the Legislature\u2019s Judiciary Committee rejected the bill, with Republicans and a handful of Democrats voting not to advance the plan.<\/p>\n<p> The plan was panned by conservative blogs for promoting \u201ctrans tourism\u201d and fueling culture wars by defying parents who objected to their children getting the procedure done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(The Center Square) \u2013 Protecting doctors performing \u201cgender affirming\u201d health care procedures from lawsuits is in a Maine proposal known as a \u201cshield law.\u201d Critics of the plan from Maine lawmakers say parental rights would be stripped. The proposal , which is pending before the Legislature\u2019s Committee on Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services, seeks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2194659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AP23095786080203-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2194658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/AP23095786080203-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2194658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2194658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2194658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2194659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2194658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2194658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2194658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}