- Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., introduced a bill to overturn Washington, D.C.'s “shield law,” which protects abortion providers and doctors prescribing cross-sex hormones to minors from out-of-state legal action.
- The D.C. law allows providers to evade accountability for sending abortion pills or cross-sex hormones into states where such practices are restricted or illegal.
- Pro-life and conservative advocacy groups backing the bill say it restores states’ rights to enforce their laws and prevents D.C. from offering legal refuge to practitioners who violate them.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde sponsored a bill that would overturn legal provisions in Washington, D.C., that direct local law enforcement not to help with investigations or prosecutions of abortion providers or doctors who prescribe gender treatments to minors.
In 2022, the Washington D.C. City Council enacted a “shield law” called the Human Rights Sanctuary Amendment. This law prohibited the District of Columbia council, its agencies and employees from cooperating when the purpose is to restrict or penalize “human rights activities.”
The “human rights activities” include abortion, hormone therapy and cross-sex surgery.
Lee’s bill is endorsed by Concerned Women for America, Alliance Defending Freedom, Freedom Research Council and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
Following the bill’s introduction, Lee said in a statement, “Our nation’s capital should not be a refuge for people who take the lives of children or wreck their bodies with illegal drugs.”
“Criminals on the lam can escape to D.C. after performing abortions in states where they are illegal, because they know D.C. will let them get away with it,” he continued. “This bill will repeal DC’s safe harbor for illegal abortionists and peddlers of drugs for transexual procedures, restoring the rule of law to Washington.”
In another statement, the director of federal affairs at the Family Research Council, MaryBeth Waddell, said, “If a woman in a pro-life state receives drugs that will kill her child from D.C. via the mail, the abortionist must be held accountable. If a young person in a pro-family state receives cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers, which can cause blood clots, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, destabilization of certain psychiatric disorders, sterilization and more, from D.C. via the mail, the provider must be held accountable.“
She added, “D.C. does not have a right to override state laws. States have a right to protect their citizens, and victims must be protected.”