ALBANY (LifeSiteNews) — New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law on Monday to strengthen the state’s “shield” for abortion and “gender transition” practices, making New York even more of a haven for abortion-on-demand and transgenderism.
As summarized by the New York chapter of the far-left American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), “Shield Law 2.0″ “will bolster New York’s protections for information that could be used to punish” abortion, “gender transitions,” or other “reproductive” practices by “protecting information about sensitive health care that is held by private entities in New York, like hospitals, clinics, and nonprofits, from being accessed by hostile officials.”
It will also “ensure that New York’s shield law protections extend to all professionals involved in [abortion and ‘gender transitions’],” and “clarify that New York’s existing medical malpractice and professional licensure protections apply to all providers who [are involved abortion and transgender practices], including therapists, speech pathologists, and advanced practice clinicians.”
NBC News 10 reports that the law also requires the attorney general’s office to be notified within five days of any request for protected information and imposes civil penalties on anyone who submits false affirmations that any information they do receive will be used “punitively.”
State Assemblymember Harry Bronson took the lead in sponsoring the law to close perceived loopholes in 2023’s “Trans Safe Haven Act.”
The move comes as New York is currently locked in a legal battle with Texas over that state’s top legal officer Ken Paxton attempting to sue a New York abortionist who mailed abortion pills to a Texas resident in violation of Texas’s laws. So far, New York officials have protected the abortionist from consequences via the state’s shield law, which bars cooperation with other states concerning laws against abortion. Paxton has challenged the shield law and sued the Ulster County, New York, clerk who refused to enforce the fine.
That fight underscores how the interstate distribution of abortion pills undermines the so-called “federalist” solution to abortion, under which every state decides its own abortion laws. Hochul has worked to make it even harder for pro-life states by signing and then strengthening another law to keep physicians’ names off of abortion pill prescription labels.
As for the transgender aspect of the new law, which would stymie prosecution of those who take confused children across state lines, a large body of evidence shows that “affirming” gender confusion carries serious harms, especially when done with impressionable children who lack the mental development, emotional maturity, and life experience to consider the long-term ramifications of the decisions being pushed on them, or full knowledge about the long-term effects of life-altering, physically transformative, and often irreversible surgical and chemical procedures.
Studies find that more than 80 percent of children suffering gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence and that “transition” practices fail to resolve gender-confused individuals’ heightened tendency to engage in self-harm and suicide – and even exacerbate it, including by reinforcing their confusion and neglecting the actual root causes of their mental strife.
