Maine Public, a nonprofit news outlet funded in large part by taxpayer dollars, published a perfunctory article Tuesday covering the public hearing on the revamped transgender trafficking bill, LD 227, failing to mention the massive public turnout in opposition to the bill, and quoting only a Planned Parenthood spokesperson.
Hundreds of activists showed up to the State House Tuesday afternoon to speak in opposition to LD 227, which would create new legal protections for abortions and so-called “gender-affirming health care,” including protections for adults who traffic children from out-of-state into Maine in order to receive sex-change hormones.
The Maine Public article, entitled “Lawmakers consider a bill to protect reproductive and transgender health care in Maine,” describes LD 227 as a bill that “aims to protect health care providers who provide reproductive and transgender health care.”
The article does not mention the fact that the actual language of the bill was released as a last-minute amendment just a week prior to Tuesday’s public hearing, having initially been introduced by Rep. Anne Perry (D-Calais) as a concept draft during the last legislative session.
Patty Wight, reporting for Maine Public, makes no mention of the hundreds of activists who came to speak out against LD 227, and the only person quoted in the four-paragraph article is Lisa Margulies, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood New England.
Planned Parenthood New England has a vested interest in supporting LD 227, as they provide abortions and “gender affirming hormone therapy” at their clinics.
Contacted for comment about the glaring problems with its coverage of the LD 227, several Maine Public executives and editors declined to respond.
A single sentence at the end of the brief article is all the attention paid to opposition to the bill, which reads “Some lawmakers on the committee expressed concern that the law would protect non-custodial parents or other [sic] who bring children from out of state to receive care in Maine.”
The Maine GOP also held a live-streamed press conference hours before the public hearing at the State House. Several GOP lawmakers spoke about the bill and their various concerns with it. It’s unclear whether Wright attended the press event, watched the recording of the press conference to glean the GOP’s perspective on the issue, or was even aware of the criticism the bill faced.
Below is Maine Public’s coverage of LD 227 in its entirety:
Maine lawmakers are considering a bill that aims to protect health care providers who provide reproductive and transgender health care.
During a public hearing before the Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, Lisa Margulies of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England said that Maine needs to shield providers from laws in other states that restrict access to such care.
“This bill is fundamentally about access to health care and resisting the devastating impact of health care restrictions enacted by other states. And those are enacted not for medical reasons, but for political reasons,” Margulies said.
Some lawmakers on the committee expressed concern that the law would protect non-custodial parents or other who bring children from out of state to receive care in Maine.
Maine Public has reported that roughly 26 percent of its fiscal year 2024 operational revenues are from state and federal funding, including $2.7 million.
Maine Public did not respond to a request for comment on whether or not they find massive citizen turnout at the State House newsworthy, why they did not interview anyone opposed to the bill, and why the only quote included in the article is from someone representing an organization with a profit motive for supporting the bill.
I don’t watch maine anymore! They only report their agenda. I feel I live in the only state in this country that has nothing going on meanwhile the state is in crisis. I only see reports of Rainbows and Butterflies. It is so Mainers don’t get triggered to start looking at bills presented, laws created, and the dead of night invasions.
Silly buggers, we don’t need laws protecting the alphabet crew because there’s no proof that they’re being persecuted. Just using the same logic on why they don’t secure voting.
The Maine Trust for Local News, presented by the Soros Foundation, had virtually no coverage.Certainly nothing about the massive turnout for the public hearing, with opposition running 8:1.
I stopped supporting and listening to Maine Public and NPR years ago when they went hard left. It’s finally time to defund them on a federal level.Why should our tax dollars go to supporting the commies? Let the DNC and Sorros support them. To paraphrase Senator John Kennedy: Why do we give money to people who hate us – They should be able to hate us for free.