Global Courant 2023-04-28 01:02:22
SEATTLE — Washington and Minnesota will not cooperate in efforts to prosecute out-of-state patients seeking reproductive or gender-affirming procedures and treatments, under new laws signed into law Thursday by the Democratic governors of the two states.
It is the latest liberal states that have introduced legal safeguards as Republican lawmakers across the country scramble to block or limit transgender and abortion healthcare. More than a dozen states have definitively banned abortion in the year since the Supreme Court’s conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade.
“Freedom of choice is a healthcare issue. We protect access to health care,” said Governor Jay Inslee, who wore a pink tie at the signing ceremony in Seattle.
The laws prevent other states from using Washington or Minnesota-led courts or legal proceedings to enforce their prohibitions — things like warrants, subpoenas, extradition requests, or other court orders.
Anti-abortion advocates and legislators questioned the need for the Washington and Minnesota shield laws since abortion is already protected by state laws. Washington Republican Representative Jim Walsh tweeted that the policy is “anti-family.”
Halfway across the country, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz made a haven for youth from other states for gender-affirming care. He also signed legislation on Thursday making Minnesota a haven for abortion patients from other states and banning so-called conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youth.
“Look, I don’t know how hard this concept is to understand,” Walz said. “If someone else gets basic rights, others don’t lose theirs. We don’t cut cake here. We have given basic rights to every Minnesotan.
Walz and Inslee signed the bills on a day when Republican lawmakers in Kansas enacted arguably the most sweeping anti-transgender bathroom law in the country. A day earlier, Montana Republican leaders barred a transgender state legislator from entering the House after she rebuked colleagues who voted to ban gender-affirming care for children.
Transgender medical treatment for children and teens has been available in the US for over a decade and is endorsed by major medical associations.
Washington’s law is in response to states such as neighboring Idaho that made it illegal for an adult to help a minor have an abortion without parental consent. And starting next year, anyone in Idaho who provides gender-affirming medical care to transgender youth can become a convicted felon.
Likewise, the new Minnesota law targets not only abortion patients from neighboring states, but also those from Texas who have made Minnesota a destination.
States that generally allow people to terminate pregnancies have performed on average more abortions per month since June last year than before Roe v. Wade was overturned. That’s according to a national tracking effort called #WeCount, which is led by the Society of Family Planning, a nonprofit that promotes research on abortion and birth control.
Washington clinics have reported 138 more abortions per month since the court’s ruling than in previous months.
Minnesota’s first openly transgender legislator, Rep. Leigh Finke, was the lead author of the House of Representatives.
Signing the law was “an act of great inclusion and celebration” that protects vulnerable people.
“We all live our daily lives, simply trying to find space to be who we are, to love who we love, to exist in our schools, to exist peacefully in our families, just find a space for us to be whole,” Finke said.
Republican Senator Paul Utke opposed the abortion law, saying Minnesota should not protect doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who have deliberately violated other states’ abortion laws.
Washington’s governor signed a handful of related bills into law on Thursday. One avoids out-of-pocket costs for abortions under health insurance policies regulated by the state Office of the Insurance Commissioner. Another raises consumer protections around how companies collect, share and sell health data, including from period-tracking apps. One-third specifically protects health care providers from disciplinary action for performing legal abortion or gender-affirming care in the state.
The state also bought a bulk order of the longtime FDA-approved abortion drug mifepristone amid an ongoing lawsuit over the drug by a conservative Christian group.
Inslee had pushed for abortion protections to be added to the state constitution, but it failed to make headway in the legislature — at least in part because it needed some Republican support to pass a two-thirds threshold in each chamber.
Abortion has been legal in Washington state since a statewide referendum in 1970. In 1991, Washington voters approved codifying Roe into state law.
A Minnesota judge lifted most of the state’s abortion restrictions last summer. Walz then signed a bill in January that codified the right to abortion.
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Karnowski reported from St. Paul, Minnesota. AP videographer Manuel Valdes contributed to this report.
