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endors submitting a bid must be able to demonstrate a minimum o fi e years ontinuous ex erien e in remo al o ha ardous materials or ubli and or ri ate se tor entities.

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Polis signs abortion, trans healthcare protections

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a trio of healthcare bills into law Friday that will protect the reproductive rights of women and preserve gender-a rming care in the state as Republicans in surrounding states have taken action to severely limit those rights.

The three pieces of legislation signed by the governor SB23-1 Protections for Accessing Reproductive Health Care SB23-1 Increasing Access to Reproductive Health Care SB23-1 0 Deceptive Trade Practice Pregnancy-Re- lated Service, are all structured to ensure people in surrounding states and beyond can go to Colorado to have an abortion, begin puberty blockers or receive gender-a rming surgery without fear of prosecution.

Colorado now joins its neighboring state to the South, New Mexico, in protecting abortion care and gender-a rming care. However the bordering states of Wyoming and Oklahoma have passed abortion bans, while Utah has severely restricted transgender care for minors.

In January, labeling Senate Bill 1 “a nuanced and thoughtful approach to a terribly divisive issue” Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox signed the bill into law. SB1 will take affect in May that will ban most gender-a rming health care for transgender youth.

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham on March 1 , signed into law House Bill , the Reproductive and Gender-A rming Health Care Act, which prohibits public bodies, including local municipalities, from denying, restricting, or discriminating against an individual’s right to use or refuse reproductive health care or health care related to gender.

In signing the trio of bills on Friday, Governor Polis said “Here in Colorado, we value individual freedoms, and we stand up to protect them. Last year we took an important step to protect the right to choose how and when to start a family. Today, we are building on those protections by Codifying the Executive Order I issued last year ensuring healthcare professionals are safe to provide legal healthcare services Expanding access to reproductive healthcare services in both commercial insurance and Medicaid; And protecting consumers from harmful practices and false advertising by organizations and providers regarding reproductive health services. I’m proud to sign these bills today to further Colorado’s reputation as a beacon of freedom and choice.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday temporarily suspended orders from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that would have restricted the nationwide sale and distribution of the abortion medication mifepristone.

The move by conservative Justice Samuel Alito will give the High Court until Wednesday April 19 to decide whether those restrictions will be kept in place pending the outcome of litigation over the case, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is now on appeal before the 5th Circuit.

Last week, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a stay of the

FDA’s approval of mifepristone 23 years ago, effectively barring its sale and distribution nationwide.

On appeal, the 5th Circuit ruled late Wednesday night that access to the drug would be restricted, though not banned entirely, pending the outcome of the case.

But for the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday, which effectively preserves the status quo until next Wednesday, access to mifepristone would have required multiple doctors visits while telehealth consultations and mail order prescriptions would have been excluded.

Medication abortions account for more than half of all abortions performed each year in the United States. Mifepristone was first approved by the FDA in 2000, and the drug

Supreme Court temporarily halts abortion pill restrictions issouri rule restri ts gender a rming health are

Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued an “emergency rule” last week that severely restricts access to guideline-directed gender-a rming healthcare for minors as well as adults in the state.

The rule was made under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act and is slated to take effect on April 2 after paperwork is filed with the Missouri Secretary of State’s o ce.

The state’s American Civil Liberties Union chapter and Lambda Legal promised to take “any necessary legal action” in a joint statement released hours after the rule was made public.

“The attorney general’s so-called emergency rule is based on distorted, misleading and debunked claims and ignores the overwhelming body of scientific and medical evidence supporting this care as well as the medical experts and doctors who work with transgender people every day,” the groups wrote.

Bailey’s restrictions go further than most anti-transgender policies that have been implemented in other conservative states, for example by requiring patients of all ages to complete 15 hourly sessions with a mental health professional over the course of 1 -months and have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria for three “most recent, consecutive years” before treatment with puberty blockers, hormones or gender-transition surgery.

Trans Missourians with autism would be barred from ac- cessing gender-a rming care, while those diagnosed with anxiety or depression would have to resolve those conditions beforehand. Patients who receive care would be required to complete 15 years of follow-ups.

As activist and legislative researcher Erin Reed pointed out in her newsletter on the rule, “Many transgender people suffer from depression or anxiety before transitioning and gender-a rming care is the most effective treatment.”

Additionally, “To delay gender a rming care for three years for transgender adults is exceptionally cruel,” Reed wrote. “Most gender a rming care in America is done according to WPATH standards via informed consent and no forced waiting period.”

Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, urged his followers to call Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to demand a rescission of the attorney general’s order.

Full statement by national LGBTQ Legal Groups condemning Missouri action barring healthcare for transgender people

“Today, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued an Emergency Rule regarding the medical treatment of transgender people. Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and GLBTQ Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) issued the following statement.

“As national legal groups who represent LGBT people and has since been proven safe and effective over more than two decades.

The Biden-Harris administration joined many legal observers in objecting to Kacsmaryk’s ruling, which these stakeholders considered an unlawful circumvention of the FDA’s Congressionally ordained power to evaluate the safety and e cacy of medications.

Kacsmaryk does not have formal training in science or medicine. Shortly after his ruling, 200 pharmaceutical industry executives issued an open letter arguing the move had cast such uncertainty around the drug approvals process that pipelines for new drug discovery would be threatened.

CHRISTOPHER KANE

their families in every state across this country, we condemn the lawless action of Missouri’s Attorney General in purporting to bar essential medical care for both transgender adolescents and adults.

“This action by Missouri’s Attorney General crosses a red line that should strike fear in the heart of every person who values individual liberty and believes that individuals, not government o cials, should make health care decisions for their children and themselves.

“This is a dangerous and unprecedented escalation in the assault on evidence-based health care for transgender people. Cutting off treatment for those who need it will create predictable, unnecessary, and serious harm. It is also a blatant attempt to strip transgender people of equal protection under the law and to subject them to intrusive government surveillance and control.

“We wish to make une uivocally clear that we will challenge this and any similar attempt to interfere with the fundamental freedom of transgender people to obtain medically necessary care and to be treated as equal, respected, and participating members of our democracy.

“Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Missouri are prepared to fight back in court and have announced their intention to take legal action against this order.