The Judiciary Committee in the Maine House of Representatives voted unanimously yesterday to stop a bill that would have protected anyone who takes a child struggling with gender confusion away from non-consenting parents for the purpose of subjecting the child to experimental and mutilating medical procedures. The legislation would have also prevented Maine from enforcing child protection laws of other states by allowing out-of-state children to get these experimental surgeries in Maine without parental consent.
According to a video recording of the judiciary work session, LD 1735 died in committee by a unanimous bipartisan vote of 12-0 in a motion that the bill “ought not to pass.”
LD 1735, deceptively titled “An Act to Safeguard Gender-Affirming Health Care,” would have given any court in Maine the authority to take “temporary emergency jurisdiction” over minors “present” in the state who have been unable to receive “gender-affirming health care.” Essentially, the bill prioritizes medically mutilating procedures over parental rights by legalizing the taking of a minor from those who have legal custody if there is “evidence” the taking of the minor was for this “medical” purpose. The bill states that courts “may not consider” the taking of any child for obtaining medical mutilating procedures and “weigh” it against the person who took the child.
While the bill characterizes these interventions as “medically necessary” and that withholding them from children is considered child abuse, the sponsors of the bill have completely ignored scientific studies and testimony from doctors that these procedures do not relieve gender confusion and often result in long-term, irreversible side effects.
LD 1735 would have also affected how law enforcement protects children. The bill would have downgraded out-of-state arrest warrants for people violating another state’s law regarding these experimental procedures to “the lowest law enforcement priority.” In addition, it would have prevented law enforcement from arresting, extraditing, or even providing information about a person to an out-of-state agency regarding “gender care” conducted in Maine.
Maine legislators indicated that they had received an outcry from parents about the bill and the dangers it posed to parental rights.
“Today we won a victory for our children who have been fooled into thinking they are not perfect the way God made them.” stated Maine Rep. Katrina Smith, a Judiciary Committee member. “With the death of LD 1735 we have proven that when evil is brought out of the darkness and exposed in the light, it can be vanquished. The people spoke loudly and it mattered.”
However, several other states have enacted legislation in 2023 aimed at keeping parents uninformed and out of any decision-making regarding their gender-confused child. In Washington State, SB 5599 allows shelters to house children who are seeking gender-related medical interventions without their parents’ knowledge or permission. In July 2023, Oregon’s HB 2002 sustained the age of consent for mutilating gender procedures without parental consent at age 15. In October 2023, California’s AB 665 allows school counselors to send gender-confused children as young as 12 years old to state-funded group homes without the knowledge or consent of a parent if there is suspicion the parents don’t support the child assuming a gender identity inconsistent with their biological sex.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “This reprehensible medical mutilation trafficking bill attempted to legalize kidnapping in Maine to subject minors to damaging and often irreversible procedures. There is no sane logic in the world that could justify trafficking gender-confused children. The unanimous vote killing this bill sends a clear message that parents have the fundamental right to protect their children.”
