Maine is increasingly becoming a destination state for all the wrong reasons ?
Pending bills to promote nine-month abortion tourism, and gender transition surgeries on children
This is Representative Katrina Smith of Palermo with the Weekly Republican Radio Address.
Maine is one of the poorest states in the country, yet it is increasingly pursuing policies that attract newcomers based on the generosity of policy-makers spending other people?s money, and marketing the state as a safe haven for extreme medical procedures.
The latest is LD 1735. Framed as ?safeguarding gender-affirming care?, the bill allows the state of Maine to receive children from other states who want to obtain permanent transgender treatments despite court orders, parental objections, or the law.
Judicial orders from other states would not be enforced or recognized if only one parent brings a child to Maine for gender-affirming health or mental care.?
Even if another parent does NOT want their child to receive treatments, Maine will automatically side with the parent who believes in ?gender affirming care? if this bill is passed. Law enforcement is specifically told to stand down and not process any warrant that would return the child.?
There is no other Maine law that asks our courts and our law enforcement to ignore an arrest warrant from another state, even if kidnapping is involved.
Free access to gender treatment that includes puberty blockers and the surgical removal or modification of genitals, will directly advertise Maine as a haven for traffickers and runaways who are experiencing dysphoria, trauma or confusion.??
Countless people are now seeking a way to restore their physical and mental health by de-transitioning; reversing their medical transitions.? Sadly, de transitioning will never give back fertility or wholeness and that is a tragedy we should not be facilitating. ?
Other countries are increasingly ahead of us in recognizing these dangers. A Swedish study found that adults who transitioned were 19 times more likely to kill themselves after transitioning. Females were 40 times more likely to take their own life!??
Finland, Sweden and England have now turned back decades of transitioning services they previously allowed making it a requirement that a child undergo mental health treatment before any hormones or transition treatment can commence.
France, Australia and Norway have banned or limited gender transitions in children. ?Maine will be on the wrong side of history if we allow this bill to pass and we will most certainly be complicit in the mutilation, death and destruction of children before they have fully developed.?
Republicans have great compassion for children struggling to find their identity and their place in the world.
We all know parents that are trying to navigate the social contagion that is sweeping the country as children are increasingly subject to harsh, divisive, confusing, messages instead of being allowed to blissfully experience the innocence of childhood as their minds and bodies develop.???
This is a difficult topic, but needs to be addressed because, for many, there will be no going back.
If we love our children, support the rights of parents, respect the law, and the people that enforce our laws, we need to defeat bills like LD 1735.
This has been Representative Katrina Smith with the Weekly Republican Radio Address.
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Rep. Katrina Smith
of Palermo is currently serving her first term in the Maine House representing District 62, which includes the towns of Windsor, China, Hibberts Gore Township, Somerville, and Palermo.? Katrina currently serves the 131st Legislature?s Joint Standing Committee on Innovation, Development, Economic Advancement, and Business.
Katrina earned her B.A. from Gordon College, and has spent her career as a realtor and investor. She is a member of the Maine Association of Realtors, Gun Owners of Maine, and the National Rifle Association.?
Representative Smith and her husband, Mike, have five children together.
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