Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., introduced legislation Wednesday aimed at preventing abortion providers and gender-transition practitioners from avoiding prosecution by traveling to Washington, D.C., after performing procedures banned in his home state.
The D.C. Shield Law Repeal Act would repeal the D.C. Council's Human Rights Sanctuary Amendment Act of 2022, which in part protects individuals and abortion providers from being held legally accountable in other states for engaging in or performing abortions, as well as disseminating gender hormone drugs.
"Both abortion and cross gender hormone drugs have serious, irreversible consequences," Clyde said in a statement.
"We cannot allow the Left's woke ideology, under the guise of 'bodily autonomy,' to infiltrate our states through the shipping of these drugs with zero legal repercussions.
"Congress must use its constitutional authority over our nation's capital to hold D.C. providers liable for undermining state laws and to protect women, children, and the unborn."
In a separate statement, Clyde said, "D.C.'s shield law allows providers in our nation's capital to deliver abortion drugs and cross gender hormones — with zero legal repercussions — to individuals in states that rightly prohibit these harmful drugs.
"This is a blatant, egregious effort by the Left to spread both the evils of abortion and woke gender ideology into every corner of our country."
"Given Congress's constitutional authority over Washington, we must repeal D.C.'s shield law to not only hold providers accountable for their crimes, but to protect women, children, and the precious unborn," he continued.
"Failure to do so lets providers off the hook for undermining state laws and endangering Americans — including my constituents in Northeast Georgia."
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said he is pushing companion legislation in the Senate.
"Our nation's capital should not be a refuge for people who take the lives of children or wreck their bodies with illegal drugs," Lee said in a statement.
"Criminals on the lam can escape to DC after performing abortions in states where they are illegal, because they know DC will let them get away with it.
"This bill will repeal DC's safe harbor for illegal abortionists and peddlers of drugs for transsexual procedures, restoring the rule of law to Washington."
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, numerous blue states implemented shield laws aimed at safeguarding abortion providers from prosecution or extradition for violating the abortion laws of other states.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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