Opinion

ROOKE: Blue State Dems Soundly Lost Debate On Radical Trans Bill — So Now They Want To Sneak It Past You

OPINION
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(Photo by LEONARDO MUNOZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Mary Rooke Commentary and Analysis Writer
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Parents defeated Maine LD1735, “An Act to Safeguard Gender-affirming Health Care,” in January, but Democrats aren’t taking the loss lying down. Instead, the state legislature is set to unveil an even more sinister version of what experts warn is a new form of child trafficking.

LD1735 died in the state Senate Judiciary Committee on a 12-0 vote after parents stood up for their children and demanded the legislature back down. Lawyers and other professionals confirmed to the Daily Caller that LD1735 would have made Maine a “sanctuary state” for minors seeking sex change treatments and denied parental rights from out-of-state parents.

Parental rights activists are now warning that Democrats in the Maine legislature are not giving up on their intent to strip parents of essential rights. Where LD 1735 failed, radical trans-activists hope their new bill, LD 227, will succeed. (ROOKE: Leaked Docs Reveal The Trans Cult Is Going Even Further Than We Ever Knew)

LD 1735 worked by updating the state’s definitions of what constitutes abuse to include parents who refuse to give “gender-affirming care” to their children. “Gender-affirming care” is a euphemism proponents use to describe the use of irreversible hormone suppression and hormone treatments that can lead to chemical castration, as well as surgeries like mastectomy, phalloplasty and vaginoplasty. The bill did not just strip parental rights from Maine residents but also out-of-state parents by refusing to send children who presented themselves to the state for transgender healthcare back to their home state.

Parents were rightly worried and confused about why Maine would propose such harmful legislation and successfully blocked the bill from making it to the floor for a full vote. However, the Democrats are hoping that by combining the contents of LD1735 with new legislation regarding abortion access, they will be able to get it to the floor successfully.

The Democrats are not taking any chances that their bill’s language will go viral. Instead of making their intent public, as with LD1735, the new bill is being hidden using a legislative trick called a “draft concept.” This allows the proposed amendments to new bills to be kept from voters while allowing the drafts to be available to legislative members.

The Daily Caller received a “draft concept” of LD227 from Courage Is A Habit president Alvin Lui. A representative source sent LD227’s draft concept to Lui as a warning of what Democrats are trying to pass, according to Lui.

Alexander Lonstein, a New York-licensed family lawyer, reviewed the copy sent to the Daily Caller and confirmed that LD227 picks up where LD1735 left off.

“The state is trying to combine gender-affirming health care service and reproductive health as one and the same,” Lonstein stated, adding that “this essentially sets the precedent that they are the same legal right.” (ROOKE: State Senate Wants To Legalize Making Obscene Materials (Porn) Available To Minors)

LD227 would make it illegal for any parent to deny a minor transgender healthcare, according to Lonstein.

“[LD227] is attempting to invalidate laws of other states that prohibit the same conduct Maine is trying to ‘protect.’ Basically, Maine is saying we are not honoring the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution,” he said. “This makes abortion and transitions a legally protected activity in the state of Maine, which is essentially making it a criminal activity to deny such treatments. Also, it is forcing insurance carriers to provide coverage for these treatments.”

Lonstein told the Daily Caller that the most concerning language in LD227 came in subsection 5 (page 8):

“the Governor may not surrender a person charged in another state as a result of engaging in legally protected health care activity or of aiding and assisting legally protected health care activity unless the executive authority of the demanding state alleges in writing that the accused was physically present in the demanding state at the time of the commission of the alleged offense and that thereafter the accused fled from the demanding state. For purposes of this subsection, ‘aiding and assisting legally protected health care activity’ and ‘legally protected health care activity’ have the same meaning as in Title 14, section 9002, subsection 1 and 6, respectively.”

“Absolutely, this is insane and political grandstanding. It’s like Northern States are all in a competition to out-crazy one another and see how far they can push the limit on ‘Gender affirming care.’ The fact they lump abortion and gender-affirming care together is essentially the state government recognizing biological males can have an abortion, and it’s a protected right to do so,” he said.

Lonstein said that while LD227 “isn’t as aggressive” in its outward attacks on parental rights as LD1735, “it would have a similar effect.” This is an issue Lui told the Daily Caller his organization hopes to prevent, calling LD227 the transgender cult’s “desperate attempt to shove in as many provisions possible to destroy parent rights.” (ROOKE: Montana Child Trafficking Story Exposes GOP Weakness In Protecting American Children)

“LD 227 is hands down the most horrendous bill I have dealt with since we began fighting the Transgender Trafficking bills,” Lui said. “Maine could not get their original Transgender Trafficking bill through in Jan 2024, so they are attempting to piggyback in through an abortion bill.”

Lui warned that not only does it allow minors to cross state lines to obtain transgender hormones and procedures, it “adds protection for any adult that traffics the minor to Maine and discourages families from bringing legal action for malpractice, similar to what some de transitioners have done.”

Joel Thorton, lawyer for Courage Is A Habit, told the Daily Caller that LD 227 discourages parents from bringing a civil action against the state of Maine or any adult that aids a minor child in receiving transgender care by considering the filing “hostile litigation,” and even awards them damages, punitive damages, and equitable relief.

Attorney Generals from Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia signed on to a letter vowing to oppose the legislation.

“LD 227 seeks to contravene the lawful policy choices of our States’ citizens by imposing on the rest of the country Maine’s views on hotly debated issues such as gender transition surgeries for children,” the letter stated. “The law’s far-reaching provisions are unprecedented. I.D 227 not only purports to shield from liability those offering or aiding the provision of unlawful services to citizens located in our States, a provision Planned Parenthood asserts would ‘safeguard’ Maine providers and patients from ‘out-of-state laws that ban or restrict care that is legal in Maine.'”

“In America, we have the right to disagree. Maine has every right to decide what Maine’s laws are and how those laws should be enforced. But that same right applies to every state. One state cannot control another. The totalitarian impulse to stifle dissent and oppress dissenters has no place in our shared America,” the A.G.s promised. “We will not allow laws like LD 227 to deter us from protecting the integrity of our States’ democratic processes. If Maine pursues LD 227’s constitutionally defective approach, we will vigorously avail ourselves of every recourse our Constitution provides.”

The state Senate Committee on Health Coverage, Insurance, and Financial Services will vote on LD227 on Thursday, March 21st.