By Sen. Lisa Keim

A bill allowing child trafficking is back, and it’s worse than ever.

Hello, this is Senator Lisa Keim of Oxford County. I’m joining you for this week’s Republican Radio Address to talk about a horrifying bill that would be used for the trafficking of children. Does this seem like déjà vu?

As some of you may remember, the Judiciary Committee recently worked a bill, LD 1735, which would have promoted child trafficking for so-called transgender care by limiting the rights of not only Maine parents, but also parents from all across the nation who would lose their parental rights at the Maine border.

Parents from across the country vehemently voiced opposition to that bill. In fact, no other bill in Maine’s history caused so much national worry and angst among parents who feared their child could be trafficked to Maine to receive so-called gender-affirming care.

When the Judiciary Committee unanimously killed that bill in January, parents sighed in collective relief thinking this depraved onslaught against children was over. That is, until we saw the secretly released language of LD 227 – a more insidious, all-encompassing version of that earlier bill.

With no notice to the public and very little notice to even other legislators, Maine Democrats have snuck their latest attempt to destroy parents’ rights into another bill and then attempted to hold a public hearing without ever making the language of the bill available to the public.  

That’s right. Through language that is still not available to the public to this day, LD 227 becomes the worst assault on parental rights we have ever seen. It offers protection to transgender traffickers while penalizing parents for seeking legal recourse for custody and even against malpractice.

In this bill, Democrats would ban the rights of parents – both civilly and criminally – who didn’t agree with gender-affirming care by stripping their rights at Maine’s border. Any adult may transport a minor across state lines in Maine to obtain transgender drugs, surgeries and/or abortion services, even if the minor is “incapacitated.” The word incapacitated is used six times in the bill!

This bill also provides protections to surgeons and mental health professionals against malpractice lawsuits by labeling anyone who would file legal action against them as “hostile litigators.” And if you are not yet horrified, please know that the new address of your minor child does not even have to be disclosed to you as the parent.

This Democrat bill seeks to punish parents through civil action damages and the cost of the countersuit. So, any parent who may be simply trying to get their child back or may want to sue a doctor for malpractice would automatically be liable for damages and costs of the countersuit. The breadth of this bill is chilling.

Hostile litigators in this bill also includes detransitioners – that ever-growing group of people who have become vocal about the permanent and life-destroying harm of so-called transgender care.

In LD 227, insurance providers are prohibited from refusing irreversible transgender procedures and drugs for minors and are not allowed to increase malpractice insurance rates to healthcare providers who practice this destructive care.

All transgender procedures and abortions are designated as a “legal right” for minors and NO ONE can interfere that legal right. Nonprofits groups and schools that help conceal minors who seek transgender procedures and/or abortion services are also granted immunity.

LD 227 represents deranged activism that would make Maine a state-sanctioned safe haven for predators to recruit and then traffic gender-confused children to Maine. And because of other recently passed Democrat policies, Maine taxpayers will be on the hook financially to cover the costs of the transgender and abortion services for medical asylum seekers who cannot pay for it themselves.

Even if predators were not a reality that must be taken into consideration, at-risk children themselves would be drawn to Maine under LD 227 as a place where they can stay just beyond the reach of their parents – simply by making it across our border and claiming medical asylum.

LD 227 devalues the sanctity of parents’ rights and in doing so, undermines the family unit that is every child’s most secure and life-sustaining foundation.

Over the course of my career in the Maine Legislature, I have seen some bad bills and have often used words such as, “This is the worst ever.” But I’ll say right now that this by far is the most vile piece of legislation I have ever seen in my four terms. Our children have become targets of an activist agenda to push so-called gender-affirming care.

I will no longer allow activists to define the terms. What is being pushed on our children in NOT gender-affirming care. It is gender-destroying care. It is mutilating their sexuality and permanently destroying their procreative abilities through drugs and surgeries. It is making them a medical experiment and condemning them to a lifetime of pain, disfigurement, corrective surgeries and prescription drugs.

It is past time to engage. It is now obvious this kind of legislation will keep coming unless you and I care enough to stop it.

Again, this is Senator Lisa Keim of Oxford County. I thank you for listening.

Senator Lisa Keim is the Assistant Republican Leader and represents the communities of District 19. She is the Senate Republican Lead on the Government Oversight Committee.