Maine lawmakers are considering legislation that would permit courts to assume “temporary jurisdiction” over a child to ensure that he or she can obtain “gender-affirming healthcare.”

Maine Democratic State Representative Laurie Osher introduced a bill last year that would amend existing definitions of an “abandoned child” to include one who has “been unable to obtain gender-affirming healthcare or gender-affirming mental healthcare.” The legislation would therefore permit courts to have “temporary emergency jurisdiction” over the child in such cases.

The term “gender-affirming healthcare” is defined as any “medically necessary healthcare that respects the gender identity of the patient, as experienced and defined by the patient.” Examples listed in the bill include interventions to suppress the development of secondary sex characteristics and to align physical traits with the preferred purported gender identity.

The bill would also allow children to travel from other states into Maine for the purpose of undergoing the procedures, which have been widely criticized for irreversible physical harm rendered to patients and the biological impossibility of changing individual sex.

Conservative activists noted that the bill was slated for a hearing on Wednesday but that the review was rescheduled for later this month after nationwide backlash.

Other states have considered expanding or restricting hormone procedures and surgeries encouraged by transgender activists. Lawmakers in Ohio overrode a veto last week on legislation that prohibits hormones and surgeries meant to alter or remove healthy body parts during a supposed gender transition on minors. The new law also establishes rights for parents who raise their children consistently with their true sex and protects female sports from self-identified transgender students with physical advantages over women.