Maine Bill Would Take Children From Parents Who Refuse ‘Gender-Affirming Care’

A new Maine bill is proposing to carve out a new category of child abuse in its state law books—it would be illegal for a parent to deny their child gender-reassignment procedures, including puberty-blocking hormones and surgery.

Under the bill, H.P. 1114, courts can receive temporary emergency jurisdiction of any child in Maine if the child is abandoned, threatened, abused, or “because the child has been unable to obtain gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care.”

Beyond that, if someone takes a child from a parent and transports them to Maine to get gender-reassignment procedures, Maine won’t consider it kidnapping, the bill reads.

“The bill prohibits a court from considering the taking or retention of a child from a person who has legal custody of the child if the taking or retention was for obtaining gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care for the child,” the bill states.

And if an adult brings a child to Maine for gender-related surgery or other procedures from a state where the practice is illegal, Maine won’t extradite the adult, the bill reads.

Opponents say the bill would allow the kidnapping and trafficking of transgender-identifying children.

The Epoch Times reached out to the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Laurie Osher, and its cosponsors, all Democrats, including state Sen. Anne Carney, and state Reps. Matt Moonen, Nina Milliken, Suzanne M. Salisbury, and Erin Sheehan. None responded.

Maine mother Amber Lavigne has experienced a taste of what the law might mean.

“You choose to stick to your guns and what you believe to be is right for your child,” she told The Epoch Times. “And they’re going to take your child.”

In 2019, Ms. Lavigne’s 13-year-old daughter identified as male while at Maine’s Great Salt Bay Community School.

The school counselor provided the girl with a breast binder without informing her, according to Ms. Lavigne’s lawsuit against the school.

Breast binders compress breasts to create a more masculine appearance. Studies link extended binder use to long-term harms, including rib fractures, overheating, skin irritation, pain, and shortness of breath.

On Dec. 2, 2022, Ms. Lavigne found a breast binder in her daughter’s room, the lawsuit said. Her daughter told her she had received it from the school counselor, Samuel Roy, the lawsuit said.

Ms. Lavigne said she talked through the issue extensively with her daughter, and today, her child no longer identifies as male.

Subjecting children to gender-reassignment procedures is “mutilation,” Ms. Lavigne said, and she would never allow her daughter to undergo such procedures.

After she sued the school, Maine’s government sent social workers to her house for a “wellness check,” she said.

Maine’s Child Protective Services found nothing wrong and closed her case within 30 days, Ms. Lavigne said.

But under the new law, Ms. Lavigne’s refusal to use male pronouns and a male name for her daughter would legally count as child abuse.

“If somebody calls CPS on me again, based on the [transgender] situation, I have no doubt in my mind that I’d be at risk for losing my child,” she said.

Ms. Lavigne is considering leaving Maine with her family if the new bill passes.

“I’ve lived here my whole life,” she said. “It’s tough to just uproot yourself. But our kids are number one.”

According to Maine parental rights advocate Shawn McBreairty, the bill damages parental rights in every state, not just Maine.

“Is this a joke?” Mr. McBreairty said to The Epoch Times. “No, that’s the situation in Maine. They’re out there wanting to literally take your kid away from you.”

Mr. McBreairty has won his own battle with the Maine Regional School Unit.

After he read aloud portions of an obscene book that was in the school district’s own library during a school board meeting, the school district banned him from attending school functions on campus.

Mr. McBreairty won a lawsuit against the school district, which was ordered to pay him $40,000 for violating his rights.

Hormones and Procedures

Mr. McBreairty called the gender-related procedures to which doctors subject children “chemical castration” and “absolute butchery.”

Gender-reassignment procedures for a girl can include cutting off her breasts, removing her womb, surgically modifying bones in her face to look more masculine, creating a fake Adam’s apple in her throat, and creating an artificial penis by cutting tissue from her arm or leg then sewing it to her crotch.

For a boy, gender-reassignment procedures include giving him breast implants; surgically modifying bones in his face to look more feminine; cutting out his Adam’s apple; cutting off his testicles; and cutting his penis open, inverting it, and inserting it into a new hole in his body.

Many of these surgeries can cause life-threatening complications.

Hormonally, boys and girls can take cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers. These substances also have many health consequences, including significant bodily changes, blood clots, infertility, high blood pressure, joint pain, diabetes, decreased intelligence, and more.

Mr. McBreairty said the proposed bill could incentivize Maine-based LGBT groups to kidnap children into the state.

“You could basically trans-kidnap a child, bring them to Maine, and the parents now have no authority over the child because the state of Maine says it’s a ward of the state,” Mr. McBreairty said.

“There’s no way that any law enforcement can take your kid and get them back for you.”

So far, Mr. McBreairty said, the bill has been met with a massive public outcry and Maine’s judiciary committee has delayed its discussion of the bill.

However, Mr. McBreairty said he’s concerned the committee will push the bill through after the media cycle moves on.