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Medical organizations, advocates urge lawmakers to pass bill to protect Maine’s providers of reproductive care and essential health care for transgender people

UPDATE: The HCIFS Committee voted to advance the bill.

As Maine lawmakers prepare to hold a work session on a bill that would protect the state’s reproductive and transgender care providers from hostile out-of-state attacks, leading medical and advocacy organizations are urging elected leaders to pass the legislation.

The Maine legislature’s Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services (HCIFS) Committee will hold a work session on LD 227, An Act Regarding Health Care in the State, sponsored by Rep. Anne Perry (D-Calais), today at 1 pm. LD 227 aims to ensure Maine law continues to govern health care practice and access in Maine, without hostile interference from other states.

Lawmakers heard from dozens of Mainers and care providers earlier this month. They’ve also faced physical and political threats in days following that hearing. The bill, however, as Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey stated on March 12, would “simply protect providers of legally protected reproductive and gender-affirming health care provided in Maine from interference or retaliation from states with different policies.”

LD 227 would protect Maine health care practitioners who provide reproductive and transgender health care in line with the professional standards of care from investigations, subpoenas, arrests, and litigation arising from another state simply because that state has banned access to care that is legal in Maine. The bill would also protect Mainers from having their medical records or cell phone data about protected health care shared with law enforcement agencies in other states where such care is banned. LD 227 does not change what health care is available in Maine or when parental consent is required for minors to access reproductive or transgender health care.

LD 227 is supported by multiple Maine medical associations including Maine Association of Physicians Assistants, Maine Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics, Maine Medical Association, Maine Nurse Practitioner Association, Maine Osteopathic Association, Maine Psychological Association, and National Association of Social Workers, Maine.

Statement from Lisa Margulies, Esq., Vice President of Public Affairs, Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England

“This bill is fundamentally about protecting medical care that is safe and legal in Maine. We know that people opposed to full spectrum reproductive care and care for transgender people will not stop their attempts to take away our rights. The threats our lawmakers and state have seen in the past few weeks serve as crystal clear evidence that Maine needs laws that protect providers, patients and our health care infrastructure. We urge our lawmakers to continue to stand against these attacks and vote to advance LD 227.”

Statement from Dee A. Kerry, Executive Director, American Academy of Pediatrics, Maine Chapter

“We denounce pieces of legislation passed in other states that seek to criminalize pediatricians and other physicians who provide medically necessary care to their patients. These bills are dangerous, both for patients and the pediatricians who care for them. Despite the misinformation that has proliferated regarding this bill, LD 227 is essential for ensuring that individuals in Maine have unimpeded access to gender-affirming care and reproductive health care services, and that health care practitioners can provide these services without fear of unwarranted legal consequences. By protecting these rights, Maine can set an example for upholding the principles of patient autonomy, non-discrimination, and access to necessary medical care.”

Statement from Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD)

“LD 227 is straightforward legislation to ensure that Maine law can continue to govern Maine health care. It will safeguard Maine’s health care infrastructure from hostile laws passed for political, not medical, purposes in other states and ensure Maine providers can continue to deliver high quality, standard-of-care medical care.”

Statement from Gia Drew, Executive Director, Equality Maine

“Politically motivated bans on best-practice medicine are specifically targeting gender-affirming health care. These attacks single out transgender youth by blocking access to life saving medical care, care that is backed by years of rigorous research and endorsed by every leading medical authority. We know that transgender youth thrive and can lead healthy lives as teens and eventually as adults, when they are supported by their family and can get the healthcare they need to affirm who they are. This bill would not only protect Maine’s medical providers from overreach from other states, it would secure confidential medical information, and send a powerful message to transgender people and their families that Maine can be a refuge from the current political storms raging across the country.”

Statement from Evelyn Kieltyka, Senior Vice President of Program Services, Maine Family Planning

“Gender-affirming care is under attack in other states, putting providers at risk for vigilantism from licensing boards that would use interstate compacts to penalize clinicians or from insurers that would use them to reject coverage––all the things this bill protects against. People, not politicians, should have the freedom to make their own health decisions, including when it comes to their gender and reproductive care.”

Statement from Bonnie Case, Co-Director, Mabel Wadsworth Center

“Mabel Wadsworth Center supports LD 227 because we support patients and providers. We know that people seeking gender-affirming care and reproductive care, including abortion care, deserve autonomy and agency. Trusted Maine providers deserve to confidently provide essential healthcare without worry of being targeted by political agendas from other states.”

Statement from Bre Danvers-Kidman, Executive Director, Maine TransNet

“This isn’t just about transgender healthcare or reproductive healthcare; it’s about ensuring providers in Maine can feel secure that they will be protected by the laws of this state in providing the best possible care to their patients. Letting out-of-state actors criminalize our providers would have consequences that reach far beyond those of us the opposition seeks to demonize–and they would do well to remember that.”

Statement from Destie Hohman Sprague, Executive Director, Maine Women’s Lobby

“We can’t allow violent rhetoric to stop the important work of our Legislature, or of Maine health care providers to perform legal care within their scope of practice. Passing LD 227 sends a strong message that Maine supports access to critical health care that advances gender justice. It also sends a message that extremists can’t get their way through threats of violence: our democratic process and continued work for gender equity won’t be scared away.”

Statement from Sue Campbell, Executive Director, OUT Maine

“LD 227 safeguards not just access to reproductive and transgender healthcare but the fundamental right of individuals to make informed medical choices in collaboration with trusted providers. It ensures that every person, regardless of circumstance, can confidently seek essential care, knowing they are protected and supported.”

Learn more about LD227

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Don’t let threats stop critical work and care for our communities

Our community and publicly elected allies are experiencing escalating threats and even violence as LGBTQ+ people are increasingly the subject of politicized, misleading rhetoric and punitive laws. Last Friday, International Women’s Day, this reached a despicable and unacceptable level in Maine.

In the wake of a virulent disinformation campaign by local and national anti-LGBTQ activists, opponents of LD 227 – a bill to protect Maine health care practitioners who provide legal patient care for transgender people and people seeking reproductive care – made bomb threats at the State and the personal homes of lawmakers. These threats sparked fear and disrupted the work of legislators, non-partisan staff, and Legislative Committees.

Thankfully, no bomb was found at the State House or in the homes of the legislators who sponsored LD 227. Thankfully, no one was hurt and the work of the legislature was only delayed by a few hours.

But the message, and the attempt to influence policy through intimidation, were clear: if you cannot win on the merits – win through fear.

We remain incredibly grateful to the legislators who continue their important work for all people of Maine on the many vital issues impacting them, and who now must do so in the face of these threats.

So we want to send a different message. A message of gratitude and strength. Of acknowledgment and partnership with legislators committed to making a positive difference for our State.

If you live in Maine, please email the members of the Committee on Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services as well as House and Senate leadership today to thank them for their work and ask them to move LD 227 forward this session.

To be clear, LD 227 is a straightforward bill. It seeks to protect Maine health care workers who provide essential, legal-in-Maine reproductive health care and transgender health care grounded in standards of care. It recognizes the very real efforts of actors outside of Maine to impose the hostile laws of other states against providers and patients in Maine. There are already 17 other states plus D.C. that have enacted shield laws for these same reasons.

We can’t allow violent rhetoric and threats to stop the important work of our legislature and of protecting our communities. We need our legislators and the public to know that we hold true to our values around caring for all people.

An essential component of that work is protecting those who provide essential, legal reproductive and transgender health care as proposed in LD 227.

There are many vital policy issues pending before the legislature this session that will make Maine safer, fairer, and more just for all people up and down our state.

One area of pressing need is increased statewide access to community-based mental and behavioral health care, as well as supports and services for substance use and addiction. These include:

LD 2237 – An Act to Strengthen Public Safety, Health and Well-being by Expanding Services and Coordinating Violence Prevention Resources
LD 1305 – Resolve, to Design and Implement a Community-based Model of Care for Adolescent Mental Health
LD 2002 – An Act to Provide Incentives to Schools That Contract for Certain Social Work and Family Therapy Services
LD 1178 – Resolve, to Reduce Barriers to Recovery from Addiction by Expanding Eligibility for Targeted Case Management Services
LD 2136 – An Act to Provide Financial Support for Shelters for Unhoused Individuals (with accompanying changes in the State Supplemental Budget)
LD 2214 – Which provides essential funding for Maine’s low barrier shelters.
LD 1779 – An Act to Develop a Continuum of Care for Youth Involved in the Justice System [proposed amendment to prevent justice involvement by law enforcement diversion to assessment rather than arrest, where appropriate]

Another is passing legislation to improve Maine’s gun safety laws, both in light of the mass shooting in Lewiston, as well as our rates of suicide by gun and domestic violence homicides involving firearms:

LD 2237 – An Act to Strengthen Public Safety, Health and Well-being by Expanding Services and Coordinating Violence Prevention Resources
LD 2224 – An Act to Strengthen Public Safety by Improving Maine’s Firearm Laws and Mental Health System
LD 2238 – An Act to Address Gun Violence in Maine by Requiring a Waiting Period for Certain Firearm Purchases

Other vital proposals would protect the right to sovereignty and self-determination of Wabanaki nations, bring to reality the commitment to teaching African American and Wabanaki History, establish a statewide data collection system, and protect the constitutional rights of defendants to legal representation.

LD 2007– An Act to Advance Self-determination for Wabanaki Nations
LD 2001 – Resolve, to Establish the African American and Wabanaki Studies Advisory Council and Provide Funding to Support African American Studies and Wabanaki Studies – to establish an advisory council with funding for content expertise and developing curricula and training)
LD 1948, An Act to Amend the State’s Data Governance Program – to develop a statewide governance plan for Maine with definitions for standards and definitions for a range of demographic characteristics, in collaboration with Secretary of State and Permanent Comm’n on the Status of Racial, Indigenous and Tribal Populations, and stakeholder consultation
LD 2214, Part WW – An Act to Make Supplemental Appropriations and Allocations [in the State Budget] for the Fiscal Years Ending June 30, 2024 and June 30, 2025 – (to support adequate funding for Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services)

GLAD supports the passage of all of these bills, and we are proud to collaborate with so many partners in Maine, including Planned Parenthood of Northern New England on LD 227. We need action on LD 227 NOW to keep it moving forward despite the use of intimidation to defeat it, and we need to add our voices to support for other bills that are vital to keeping Maine a welcoming and safe place for all. Your calls and emails to legislators matter enormously.

Please email the members of the Committee on Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services (HCIFS) as well as House and Senate leadership to thank them for their work and to ask them to advance LD 227 and these other important bills in this session.

Thank you for taking action and thank you for all you do to ensure LGBTQ+ people, and all people, can be healthy, happy, and safe.

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By Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy

The ideological effort to roll back the clock on autonomy and equal rights for LGBTQ+ people and all women hit another milestone recently when the Alabama Supreme Court issued an alarming decision saying that frozen embryos are children, shutting down access to IVF in the state and sending shockwaves across the country. The resulting legislative “fix” in Alabama was no fix and further undermined hopeful parents and their efforts to build their families.

It was a staggeringly clear example of increasing efforts to control our lives and our most personal decisions: to cut off access to fertility healthcare, ban contraception, outlaw abortion in any form without exception, end access to critical healthcare for transgender people, preclude the formation of LGBTQ+ families, and even ban no-fault divorce and take the freedom to marry away from same-sex couples.

But as the outcry against that Alabama ruling shows, people across the country are saying no to that agenda of fear and control.

At GLAD, we are fighting alongside our partners and allies every day to protect our hard-won rights and push back against these attacks, so we can all live how we deserve to – freely, authentically, and joyfully.

In the past week alone, GLAD has:

Advocated in state houses for crucial shield bills to protect access to reproductive and transgender healthcare in Maine and Rhode Island, while we continue our federal legal challenges to bans on essential healthcare for transgender people in Alabama and Florida. These important bills would build on GLAD’s work to pass shield laws in Massachusetts (2022) and Vermont (2023).
Championed equitable coverage for fertility healthcare before multiple Connecticut legislative committees, so that Connecticut law reflects the standard of care ensuring LGBTQ+ people and single people on private insurance and Medicaid have access to the healthcare they need to build their families. GLAD was invited to appear with U.S. Senator Blumenthal to advocate not only for the Connecticut legislation but also for the federal Access to Family Building Act that seeks a national right to fertility healthcare.
Continued our work to update parentage laws in all states so that children of LGBTQ+ parents and children born through assisted reproduction are secure. We appeared in support of the Michigan Family Protection Act, which would repeal Michigan’s criminal ban on surrogacy and ensure protections for children born through assisted reproduction and surrogacy, in the state senate, and hope to see that bill, and a similar bill in Massachusetts, signed into law this session. As we see legislative and court actions put our families at risk, we must pass robust parentage bills like these to protect children and parents.
As the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard arguments Monday in Braidwood v. Becerra, a case about whether health insurers will have to continue to cover highly effective preventatives like HIV PrEP without copays or deductibles, our friend-of-the-court brief warned that upholding the lower court’s ruling would result in tens of thousands of preventable new HIV cases. GLAD continues to advocate for legislation to remove barriers to PrEP and address the racial disparities in access, including making PrEP available through pharmacies and without insurance prior authorization requirements which create unnecessary delays.

The agenda of fear and control won’t win.

With your support today and in the days to come, together we can protect our access to essential healthcare, our right to build our families, and our freedom to make important, personal decisions about our own lives.

News you may have missed:

Boston Review: GLAD Senior Director of Transgender and Queer Rights Jennifer Levi and NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter in conversation about the decades-long fight for transgender rights

MassLive: Highlighting LGBTQ+ leaders in Massachusetts, including GLAD Director of Family Advocacy Polly Crozier and GLAD Board Member and CEO of TransHealth Dallas Ducar

Protecting Access to Health Care in Maine

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Victory: The Maine House and Senate voted to advance the bill, and on April, 22, 2024 the bill was signed into law! Maine residents, thank legislators for supporting this vital legislation.

Transgender and reproductive health care is safe, well-established, standard-of-care medicine. Yet, over 20 states across the country have passed hostile laws restricting access to this health care for political, not medical, reasons.

LD 227, “An Act Regarding Health Care in the State,” will protect access to health care that is legal in Maine and ensure Maine providers can continue to deliver high-quality health care to people who come to Maine who are unable to access this care in their state.

This bill is similar to shield bills that have passed in Massachusetts, Vermont, and other states.

Trans Support & Advocacy | Transgender Rights | Maine

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GLAD works alongside many great organizations that strive to support and uplift the LGBTQ+ community. Below you will find links to several organizations that work with transgender folks and their loved ones in Maine in a variety of areas. For further resources and referrals, please reach out to GLAD Answers by filling out our intake form. You can also email us at GLADAnswers@glad.org or leave a voicemail at 800-455-GLAD.

Criminal Justice | Resources for Incarcerated People | Maine

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Sample Grievance

I, John/Jane Inmate, was harassed/threatened/physically attacked because of my sexual orientation by [name(s) of person(s) involved] on [date(s) that the act(s) took place].

When you write a grievance, be sure to include as much information as you can remember. Include in your complaint:

what happened
when it happened
who did it
where it happened
what was said by the attacker(s)—paraphrase if you do not remember the exact quote.
who saw it happen
why you think it happened

If you reported harassment to any prison official(s) previously, indicate who you told, when, and what they did or did not do about it.

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Protecting Access to Health Care in Maine

With politicians around the country denying essential medical care to transgender people, it is critical that Maine take steps to protect access to health care and the providers who deliver that care. We thank Rep. Osher for starting this process even though LD 1735 is not moving ahead. We know that Maine people, state leaders and many legislators understand the importance of passing the right bill as quickly as possible. We look forward to working with the legislature to move forward on a bill to support transgender people and their families, protect health care providers from hostile out-of-state laws, and ensure continued access to care for all in Maine.

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Expanding GLAD Answers’ Reach Where We’re Needed Most

GLAD Answers, GLAD’s legal information line, is busy. This year so far, we have a monthly average of 169 intakes, up from 130 per month in 2022. GLAD Answers staff can answer questions and support a high number of callers with the help of 20 GLAD Answers volunteers.

Intakes per month so far this calendar year:

January

170

February

135

March

197

April

144

May

181

June

205

July

168

August

155

September

123

From January to September, callers have needed support in the following areas:

Issue areas	Number of intakes
ID Project	271
Treatment In Prison	193
Violence/Harassment	122
Medical Care/Access	86
Employment	67
Housing	57
Immigration/Asylum	53

The team, GLAD Answers Coordinator Kayden Hall and Public Information Manager Gabrielle Hamel, holds a volunteer training every six months. We just held our latest training in September with six new volunteers joining fourteen dedicated others who have stayed with us from the previous year. These committed folks who donate their time respond to emails, phone calls, and online intakes, and provide resources and information to those in need.

Our next volunteer training will take place in the spring. You can sign up now!

With so many wonderful volunteers, we are working to expand our reach to ensure everyone who GLAD Answers can help is aware of this free resource, particularly low-income and Black and Brown communities, as well as regions outside greater Boston. We invite you to share information about GLAD Answers with those in your community who may have questions about their legal rights or need information about addressing anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination.

This story was originally published in the Fall 2023 GLAD Briefs Newsletter, Read more.

Rejecting Calls for Book Bans

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The vast majority of book bans that are taking hold across the country specifically aim to remove books that are by and about LGBTQ people, communities of color, and other marginalized groups. Students have the right to equal educational opportunity and a First Amendment right to speak and receive information freely.

Massachusetts
On January 23, 2023, GLAD and the ACLU of Massachusetts sent a letter urging Massachusetts public school districts to protect students’ legal rights by rejecting censorship in school libraries. Read the letter.

Maine
On May 16, 2023, GLAD and the ACLU of Maine sent a letter to Maine’s public school leaders demanding they uphold their own legal obligations and students’ First Amendment rights by stopping efforts to ban and censor books. Read the letter.

New Hampshire
On December 4, 2023, GLAD and the ACLU of New Hampshire sent a letter to Frank Edelblut, the commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Education (DOE), warning about First Amendment concerns regarding the DOE’s insinuation that the Dover School District should consider banning two books as “developmentally inappropriate.” In a separate open letter to the superintendents of New Hampshire’s school districts, GLAD and the ACLU of New Hampshire urged them to take a stand against censorship and protect student access to an equal and safe environment by resisting calls to remove books from school libraries. Read the letters.

ID Documents | Maine

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The Transgender ID Project is a free resource for transgender people living in New England who want to update their legal name and gender marker on state and federal documents.

If you need assistance updating your legal name and gender on federal and state documents, visit the Maine page for the Transgender ID Project.