Last-minute bill to protect reproductive and gender care in Maine draws hours of testimony

In a packed hearing room on Tuesday, lawmakers heard testimony on a bill to ensure out-of-state patients and Maine medical professionals who provide reproductive health services and gender-affirming treatments aren’t penalized by other states’ laws. 

The measure, known as a shield law, comes as Republican-led states around the country have sought to curb access to reproductive health care following the overturning of federal abortion rights by the Supreme Court in 2022. Fourteen states have banned abortion, with a handful of other places putting strict limits on the procedure. In addition, 22 primarily GOP-controlled states have targeted gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

Almost a dozen Democratic-led states have passed shield laws.

Rep. Anne Perry (D-Calais), the sponsor of LD 227, said such protections are needed.

Supporters and critics of gender-affirming healthcare vote down overly-complex bill

“We 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,” Perry said during a public hearing on the bill before the Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services Committee.

“This bill reinforces the fact that Mainers have control over their own bodies and health care decisions,” Perry added. 

Reproductive health groups like Planned Parenthood also support the measure. 

“Full spectrum reproductive health care and gender-affirming health care are essential, lifesaving services that are safe and legal in Maine. With LD 227, our elected leaders have an opportunity to stand up for safe, legal medical care by protecting providers who offer that care and the patients who seek it,” said Lisa Margulies of Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund.

Until recently, Perry’s bill had been a concept draft, and it was only filled in with legislative text in the last week. The introduction of the bill late in the second session of the Legislature came after lawmakers in the Judiciary Committee voted down another shield bill in January that would have, among other provisions, prohibited Maine from enforcing out-of-state orders to remove a child from a guardian’s care for allowing the child to receive gender-affirming care. Committee members, including the bill’s supporters, felt that proposal was overly complicated and too broad. 

Republicans on the health insurance committee attempted on Tuesday to have LD 227 referred to the Judiciary Committee, arguing that the bill was more relevant to that panel’s purview, but Democrats voted that motion down. 

The process around LD 227 also came under fire from the conservative Christian Civic League of Maine, which in a recent email criticized the late timing of Perry’s bill as well as the measure itself, which it claimed is part of an “assault upon life, our children, and our parental rights.” 

Legislative Republicans also held a press conference in opposition to the proposal prior to the public hearing on the bill. 

The bill generated a significant amount of testimony from members of the public as well, with roughly over a hundred people showing up to speak about the proposal, many of them in opposition. While those against the measure did cite the bill’s provisions around abortion, a large amount of written testimony focused on the gender-affirming care aspects. Opponents argued that the measure would take away parents’ rights to decide on the health care needs of their children. 

However, numerous medical associations and public health groups have issued statements of support for gender-affirming care, arguing that such treatment is necessary and that bans are a “dangerous intrusion into the practice of medicine,” in the words of the American Medical Association.  

Providers have also said they fear laws prohibiting gender-affirming care will lead to worse mental health outcomes for transgender youth. As for the impacts on the reproductive health side, research has shown that those giving birth in states with abortion bans are nearly three times more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth or the immediate aftermath of the childbirth. 

Along with LD 227, Maine lawmakers are also considering additional reproductive rights bills this session. One proposal would enshrine the right to reproductive autonomy in the state Constitution while another would require insurance providers to cover over-the-counter contraceptives without passing along costs to customers.