A Montana state representative condemned a transgender legislator’s ‘hate-filled remarks’ to Fox News Digital, accusing the representative of ‘seeking media attention.’

The controversy stems from comments made by State Rep. Zooey Zephyr during a Tuesday debate about a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for minors.

Zephyr accused the bill’s supporters of being complicit in the deaths of transgender youths.

‘The only thing I will say, is if you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments, I hope the next time there’s an invocation when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands,’ Zephyr said.

After her remarks, Republican Speaker Matt Regier refused to allow Zephyr to express her thoughts on a bill that would put binary definitions of sex in the state code. Zephyr was also barred from speaking at Thursday and Friday sessions.

‘Not only has my colleague violated decorum, but has broken the trust given by the other 99 Representatives,’ Montana state representative Braxton Mitchell told Fox News Digital. ‘The hate-filled remarks were an act of self-service, not public service.’

‘I applaud the Speaker and Majority Leader for giving my colleague opportunities to rectify the consequences of this stunt,’ the Republican lawmaker added. ‘Since the hateful attack on the House, the Representative has tried to create further opportunities to seek media attention. We will not stand for it.’

Regier reportedly demanded Zephyr to apologize before allowing her to speak in the sessions again. Zephyr stood by her remarks, accusing the bill of targeting her community.

‘When there are bills targeting the LGBTQ community, I stand up to defend my community,’ Zephyr said. ‘And I choose my words with clarity and precision and I spoke to the real harms that these bills bring.’

Fox News’ Adam Sabes and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Minnesota lawmakers on Thursday passed legislation that would establish the state as a ‘trans refuge’ for children who are seeking transgender medical procedures but who may be denied ‘gender-affirming care’ in other states.

In a party-line 68-62 vote, the Minnesota House passed HF 146, which had been introduced by Rep. Leigh Finke of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Finke is the state’s first transgender lawmaker. The Minnesota Senate passed the legislation by a vote of 34-30 Friday evening.

Democrats supporting the bill say the legislation will protect transgender people, their families and health care providers from facing legal repercussions for traveling to Minnesota for cross-sex hormone prescriptions or sex-change procedures. 

Similar legislation has been introduced in California and other states with Democratic-controlled legislatures which seek to counter Republican states that have sought to ban transgender procedures for minors. 

‘Gender-affirming care is life-saving health care,’ Finke told reporters ahead of debate on the bill. ‘Withholding or delaying gender-affirming care can have a dramatic impact on the mental health of any individual who needs it. Rates of depression, suicide, substance abuse are dramatically higher in transgender and gender-expansive individuals who lack access to care.’

HF146 would prevent law enforcement from removing a child from parental custody in accordance with an order from outside Minnesota. 

The bill now heads to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s desk for his signature.

This legislation is meant to ensure that children undergoing gender transition procedures allowed under Minnesota law cannot be governed by child protection laws of other states. It’s a direct response to neighboring South Dakota, where Republican Gov. Kristi Noem signed a law banning puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone treatments and sex-change operations for transgender individuals under the age of 18. 

Advocates for transgender people say that denying ‘gender-affirming care’ to trans youth inflicts harm on a marginalized group that is already at a higher risk of suicide. 

‘The protections outlined in HF 146 are vital for health care providers, who can continue to provide gender-affirming health care to their patients consistent with best practices, without fear of interference or punishment from other states,’ said Jess Braverman, Legal Director for Gender Justice. 

‘Parents are being forced to make an impossible decision between staying in their homes and risking their child’s health and safety or uprooting their lives and relocating, often at great personal cost. We can do our part to help by making it clear that if families move to Minnesota, they and their children will be protected under the law.’ 

However, conservative groups and family law attorneys warn that the legislation is written in such a way as to open the door for Minnesota parents to lose custody of their children if they refuse to provide them with transgender care. 

‘The most insidious aspect of this bill is the language that adds children who are being denied ‘gender-affirming care’ (defined as everything from therapy to hormone blockers, to transition surgery) to what amounts to the definition for a child ‘in need of protection or services’ in Minnesota, allowing the courts to take ‘emergency custody’ of the child,’ said Bob Roby, a licensed attorney in Minnesota with more than 30 years experience in family and juvenile court.  

Roby has studied HF 146 extensively in preparation to testify before legislative committees. He said the way the bill is written, categorizing a child being denied transgender care with abuse, turns laws meant to protect children on their head. 

‘This kind of court power has a long-standing precedent in Minnesota for keeping children safe. When a child is at risk of being harmed by a parent or custodian, the state has immediate authority to remove and protect the child from harm. Without this, there would be no way to protect children in those situations,’ Roby told Fox News Digital in an email. ‘To add children who are being denied ‘gender affirming care’ to the definition of children in need of this kind of drastic emergency action is obviously unwarranted.’

Roby observed that courts do not recognize parental rights or any other right where a child is being abused. He accused the state legislature of ‘criminal negligence’ for failing to consider the impact of HF 146. 

Renee Carlson, general counsel of True North Legal, a legal initiative of Minnesota Family Council, warned that the bill as written will ‘create confusion and increased litigation for the courts, while stripping parents of their fundamental rights, disregarding informed consent and encouraging young children on a dangerous path to serious lifelong biological and medical consequences.’

Transgender issues are highly controversial, with strong feelings on both sides. Hundreds of supporters and opponents of the legislation protested at the state Capitol building as lawmakers debated the bill. Black signs with white text said, ‘Protect Kids’ as dozens yelled, ‘Vote no!’ Others shouted back, ‘Vote yes!’ and held signs with colors from the trans flag — baby blue and pink — that said, ‘You belong here.’

Whether gender-affirming care is right for minors has become a major flash point in the culture wars across the country. The unicameral Nebraska Legislature gave preliminary approval earlier Thursday to a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Georgia’s governor, Republican Brian Kemp, signed a ban Thursday. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, another Republican, did so Wednesday. The Missouri Senate gave preliminary approval to a ban Tuesday. Bans were enacted earlier in South Dakota, Utah and Mississippi.

The ‘trans refuge’ bill, which seeks to counter those efforts, now heads to the Minnesota state Senate, where Democrats hold a one-seat majority. A similar bill is awaiting further action there after receiving a hearing last month. The chief Senate author, Sen. Erin Maye Quade of Apple Valley, told The Associated Press she expects a floor vote there soon.

The Associated Press and Fox News’ Timothy Nerozzi contributed to this report.

A transgender lawmaker in Montana was censured Thursday after she was accused of presenting a ‘hate-filled testimony’ while debating a bill that would ban transgender medical care for minors.

State Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a Democrat, had a message for those who voted in favor of the bill banning transgender medical care for minors.

‘The only thing I will say, is if you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments, I hope the next time there’s an invocation when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands,’ Zephyr said referencing the body’s opening prayer.

Republican Speaker Matt Regier then refused to acknowledge Zephyr when she wanted to express her opinion on a bill aiming to put a binary definition of male and female into the state code.

‘It is up to me to maintain decorum here on the House floor, to protect the dignity and integrity,’ Regier said. ‘And any representative that I don’t feel can do that will not be recognized.’

Regier said that the decision to not allow Zephyr to speak came after ‘multiple discussions’ with other lawmakers, adding that there have been similar problems.

Montana Freedom Caucus member Rep. Caleb Hinkle, one of the individuals who demanded the censure, said that ‘Hate-filled testimony has no place on the House floor.’

The bill that was being debated would ban transgender minors in the state from receiving surgical procedures, hormones, and puberty blockers.

Zephyr said on Thursday in a statement that the Montana GOP ‘is refusing to allow me to speak on any bill for the remainder of the legislative session.’

‘I want to be clear: no amount of silencing tactics will deter me from standing up for the rights of the transgender community,’ Zephyr said. ‘I will not apologize for speaking with clarity and precision about the harm these bills cause. Montana Republicans say they want an apology, but what they really want is silence as they take away the rights of trans and queer Montanans.’

The Montana House Freedom Caucus said in a statement earlier on Thursday that Zephyr should be censured.

‘The Montana Freedom Caucus demands Representative Zooey Zephyr of Missoula’s House District 100 be censured by the House for attempting to shame the Montana legislative body and by using inappropriate and uncalled-for language during a floor debate over amendments concerning Senate Bill 99 — to ban sex changes of minor children,’ a press release states. ‘This bill already passed the Montana House and Senate, and the debate was over amendments requested by the governor.’

Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte has signaled that he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

Fox News’ Kyle Morris and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Biden administration appears to have green-lit a project proposed by Chinese-controlled battery company Gotion to build a factory in the U.S. after a short review.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) — an interagency taskforce overseen by the Department of the Treasury and tasked with reviewing certain foreign investments that may pose a national security threat — determined a Gotion project in the southern U.S. was not subject to further review, according to the company’s top North America executive.

‘Gotion is pleased to share the news we received from the Department of Treasury yesterday regarding a voluntary Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, CFIUS, filing that we submitted in March for a proposed plant in the southern United States,’ said Chuck Thelen, Gotion’s vice president of North American operations. 

‘Following an almost four-week review process by the committee, which is a nine panel committee using all the intelligence agencies within the United States, CFIUS determined that our proposed transaction was not subject to further review and we may proceed with the proposed transaction,’ he continued.

Thelen’s comments came during a hearing Thursday before state lawmakers in Michigan where Gotion, a subsidiary of the Hefei City, China-based Gotion High-Tech, has proposed a separate electric vehicle battery project. That factory, which Gotion is set to begin building in Big Rapids, Michigan, this year, has faced heavy scrutiny given the company’s ties to China.

Thelen mentioned the CFIUS review for Gotion’s southern U.S. plant, the exact location of which he didn’t disclose, in an effort to assuage lawmakers’ concerns about the Michigan project. He also mentioned a voluntary CFIUS review concerning the Michigan plant is ongoing.

‘Our voluntary filing for the Big Rapids area plant was submitted April 13 as I have indicated previously and we expect a similar review period and outcome,’ he said. ‘So, the CFIUS for the southern United States has already been passed.’

Later in the hearing, in a 10-9 vote, the Michigan state Senate Appropriations Committee gave the final stamp of approval for granting Gotion $175 million in direct taxpayer funding to help build the facility. The vote, which only received support from Democratic lawmakers on the panel, was immediately slammed by Republicans who argued it was a corporate handout benefiting an adversary.

Republican state Sen. Lana Theis, one of the committee members who voted against the funding, said Gotion has ‘deep ties to and is directly influenced by the Chinese Communist Party’ and added that it wasn’t inconceivable that China might weaponize the plant ‘causing untold damage and security risks.’

‘Gotion crafted, in secret, a sweetheart deal with eager government bureaucrats that threatens our state and national sovereignty and security, the environment, and public health and safety, while essentially costing the company nothing in return,’ she said in a statement.

According to its corporate bylaws, Gotion High-Tech is required to ‘carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.’

And Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., who represents the district where the Big Rapids plant would be constructed, released communications between himself and the Treasury Department over a CFIUS review he requested in February. In an April 4 letter, Treasury Assistant Secretary Jonathan Davidson reiterated the importance of CFIUS, but didn’t address Moolenaar’s concerns.

‘Treasury’s response fails to provide information on CCP investment in Michigan and reflects how the federal review process is broken,’ Moolenaar said. ‘During the 46 days it took to craft this insufficient reply, CFIUS could have conducted a review of the CCP-affiliated Gotion project in Mecosta County.’ 

‘The lack of transparency in this process is concerning and people should be able to know that a company that is trying to come into their community is being reviewed for its ties,’ he added. ‘While it is welcome that Gotion recently requested a federal review on its own, the subsidiary of a parent company that pledges allegiance to the CCP should not pass a CFIUS review to build a facility in Michigan.’

The Michigan lawmaker later added that the Michigan legislature’s decision to give funding to Gotion was a ‘historic mistake.’

When asked about the status of the ongoing CFIUS reviews and the review Gotion touted on Thursday, the Treasury Department declined to directly comment.

‘CFIUS is committed to taking all necessary actions within its authority to safeguard U.S. national security,’ a Treasury Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital. ‘Consistent with law and practice, CFIUS does not publicly comment on transactions that it may or may not be reviewing.’

A new Vermont law that raises the eligibility age for marriage to 18 takes effect in July.

Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed the legislation on Thursday, making Vermont the eighth state in the country to end child marriage.

Supporters said it will reduce domestic violence and unwanted pregnancies and improve the education and lives of teenagers.

A New Jersey-based group has been lobbying to end child marriage across the country, calling it a ‘human rights abuse.’ It said between the years 2000 and 2018, nearly 300,000 children were married in the U.S., and most of the marriages were between girls and adult men. In Vermont, 289 children under the age of 18 were married between 2000 and 2021 and 80% of them were girls married to adult men, according to the organization.

Under existing law, Vermonters aged 16 and 17 can get married with the consent of one parent. That changes when the new law takes effect on July 1.

Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Friday the migrant crisis the country is facing under the Biden administration has ‘destroyed’ his city.

Adams made the comments during a panel discussion with the African American Mayors Association in Washington, D.C.

‘[The] city is being destroyed by the migrant crisis,’ Adams said during the discussion. 

Adams even appeared to take a hit at politicians from his own city, suggesting they aren’t doing much to fix the issue at hand.

‘None of my folks came to Washington, D.C., to fight for the resources, that’s going to undermine every agency in our city,’ Adams said.

Adams made similar comments Wednesday, when he said that the ‘national government has turned its back on New York City,’ adding that ‘every service in this city is going to be impacted by the asylum seeker crisis.’

In a memo from the New York City Office of Management, reported by the New York Post, the city will spend an estimated $4.2 billion on costs related to migrants and asylum seekers that would be spent through June 30, 2023, and the end of fiscal year 2024.

According to the internal city memo, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan would reimburse the city for up to $1 billion in migrant aid, which only covers 29% of expected shelter costs.

New York City officials have applied for a FEMA grant worth $654 million, with a decision expected May 31.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, signed a bill this week officially abolishing the death penalty in the Pacific Northwest state nearly 10 years after he initiated a moratorium on capital punishment and five years after the state supreme court struck it down as ‘unconstitutional.’

‘It’s official,’ the governor wrote on Twitter Thursday. ‘The death penalty is no longer in state law. In 2014 I issued a moratorium. In 2018 the state Supreme Court deemed the death penalty unconstitutional. Now in 2023, passage of SB 5087 strikes it entirely from our statutes.’

Washington’s supreme court ruled the death penalty was arbitrary and racially-based in 2018 after a study at the University of Washington found that juries were four times as likely to sentence a Black defendant to death than a non-Black one. 

The court converted the sentences of the eight people on Washington’s death row to life in prison at the time. 

‘The death penalty is unequally applied — sometimes by where the crime took place, or the county of residence, or the available budgetary resources at any given point in time, or the race of the defendant,’ Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst wrote in the lead opinion.

FLORIDA GOV DESANTIS SIGNS BILL ALLOWING JURIES TO SENTENCE AN INMATE TO DEATH WITHOUT UNANIMOUS VOTE 

She added, ‘To the extent that race distinguishes the cases, it is clearly impermissible and unconstitutional.’ 

Defense lawyers had long challenged the death penalty on those grounds, noting the state’s worst mass murderers and serial killers, Green River killer Gary Ridgway among them, had received life terms, not death. In a 5-4 ruling in 2006, the justices rejected an argument from a death row inmate that he shouldn’t be executed because Ridgway hadn’t been executed.

Washington’s last execution took place in 2010 when Cal Brown was given a lethal injection for the brutal rape, torture and murder of 21-year-old Holly Washa in 1991.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Inslee’s office for comment. 

Neighboring Idaho is one of 27 states that still allows the death penalty and is the most recent to adopt the use of a firing squad execution amid a shortage of drugs used for lethal injections and controversy around the efficacy of lethal injections. 

Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and South Carolina also allow firing squads and have collectively executed three condemned prisoners by that method since 1976.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

After delaying its decision earlier this week, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that full access to the abortion pill mifepristone can continue as a lawsuit works its way through the lower federal courts.

Mifepristone was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000, and its use has been deregulated in recent years. Under President Biden, the FDA made abortion pills more widely available at retail pharmacies, including delivery by mail. 

The ruling by the Supreme Court gives a victory to the Biden administration and supporters of abortion rights, but the Supreme Court will likely be asked to revisit the issue later this year.

The case challenging the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, brought by pro-life doctors and medical groups, is the first abortion controversy to be heard by the Supreme Court since the Republican-appointed majority overturned Roe v. Wade 10 months ago and permitted more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.

In that decision, Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. said abortion policy should be a question for lawmakers to consider, not courts. 

‘It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,’ Alito wrote.

In this case, the issue is not abortion pills directly, but whether the FDA acted appropriately in approving the drug more than 20 years ago. The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents the pro-life plaintiffs, alleges the FDA ‘chose politics over science’ in approving the drug and acted unlawfully by removing safeguards around mifepristone, including permitting the pill to be delivered by mail.

The Biden administration and Danco Laboratories, the drug’s manufacturer, counter that mifepristone has been repeatedly found to be safe and effective by FDA’s expert review process. In over two decades since it was first approved, the drug has been used by more than 5 million women to terminate pregnancies.  

The case reached the Supreme Court after Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk issued a highly controversial ruling siding with the pro-life groups and halting FDA approval for mifepristone. His order was partially overturned by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but the appeals court preserved restrictions that made the drug available only to be dispensed up to seven weeks, not 10, and not by mail.

The Justice Department argued that allowing restrictions to mifepristone imposed by the lower courts to remain in place would cause chaos. Complicating the matter, a federal judge in Washington has ordered the FDA to preserve access to mifepristone under the current rules in response to a separate lawsuit brought by 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia. 

The Biden administration has said the rulings conflict and create an untenable situation for the FDA. 

In a new development, the generic abortion pill maker GenBioPro Inc. filed a lawsuit against the FDA Wednesday to keep mifepristone available on the market amid the other ongoing legal challenges. 

Mifepristone is taken with misoprostol in a two-drug regimen that first blocks hormones needed to keep an unborn baby alive and then causes cramps and contractions to expel the dead fetus from the mother’s womb. 

The drug is 97% effective in terminating early pregnancy, though approximately 3% of women who take it will ‘require surgical intervention for ongoing pregnancy, heavy bleeding, incomplete expulsion or other reasons such as patient request,’ according to the manufacturer. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign on Friday launched multiple attacks on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential rival in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, citing multiple progressive groups and far-left MSNBC host Joy Reid’s blog in doing so.

In a press release titled, ‘The Real Ron DeSantis Playbook,’ Trump’s campaign cited data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) and the Florida Policy Institute to blast DeSantis for what it said was data showing the state continuing ‘to tumble into complete and total delinquency and destruction.’

Additionally, Trump later posted on Truth Social with a quote from Reid’s Wednesday blog, The ReidOut, which called DeSantis’ trip to Washington, D.C. to meet with lawmakers this week a ‘charm offensive,’ and ‘a massive failure.’

According to the data Trump’s campaign cited from the NLIHC, a group ‘dedicated to achieving racially and socially equitable public policy,’ Floridians making just $10 have to work 86 hours per week in order to afford a single bedroom home.

The data cited by Trump’s campaign from the Florida Policy Institute, a non-partisan, but liberal-leaning, non-profit focused on the state’s economic policies, listed Florida as one of the least affordable states in the country to live.

Each of these points, Trump’s campaign blamed on DeSantis and his leadership as Florida’s governor.

‘The real DeSantis record is one of misery and despair. He has left a wake of destruction all across Florida and people are hurting because he has spent more time playing public relations games instead of actually doing the hard-work needed to improve the lives of the people he represents,’ Trump spokesperson Stephen Cheung said in a statement.

It isn’t clear why Trump’s campaign would cite Reid’s blog in its attacks against DeSantis, as the liberal host has regularly railed against both men on her evening program. 

DeSantis has reportedly been mulling a run for the White House, but has yet to announce whether he will ultimately toss his hat into the ring and challenge Trump’s front-runner status for the GOP nomination.

Fox News Digital reached out to DeSantis’ campaign for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

North Dakota House lawmakers passed three bills Friday that would restrict transgender people’s access to bathrooms, remove sexually explicit materials from the children’s section of libraries, and expand child care assistance in the hopes of combating the state’s workforce shortage.

The trans bill and sexual materials bill passed the House and Senate with veto-proof majorities, so the bills could become law without Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s approval.

The child care bill passed after heated debate in the House and without a veto-proof majority. It still requires approval from the Senate and governor to become law.

Transgender Bill

The legislation would limit access to bathrooms, locker rooms and shower rooms for transgender and gender-nonconforming people in several state facilities. That includes dorms and living facilities controlled by the state board of higher education, penitentiaries and correctional facilities for youths and adults.

Restrooms and shower rooms at these facilities would be designated for use exclusively for males or exclusively for females, according to the bill. Transgender or gender-nonconforming people would need to get approval from a staff member at the facility to use the restroom or shower room of their choice.

House lawmakers did not debate the bill. It passed with a 78-14 vote.

Three Republicans — Reps. Eric James Murphy of Grand Forks, David Richter of Williston, and Cynthia Schreiber-Beck of Wahpeton — defied their party and voted against the bill. In the other direction, Democratic Rep. Corey Mock, of Grand Forks, was the only person in his party to vote in support of the bill.

The American Civil Liberties Union has said that so far this year, more than 450 bills attacking the rights of transgender people have been introduced in state legislatures.

Sexual Materials Bill

Public libraries would be prohibited from keeping sexually explicit material — which is defined as being ‘patently offensive’ and lacking ‘serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors’ — in the children’s section, under this bill.

A librarian or anyone else who knowingly violates the rule could be charged with a felony, said Republican Rep. Lawrence Klemin, of Bismarck, speaking on the House floor before voting in support of the bill. The felony comes with up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

Following minimal discussion, the bill passed with a 70-22 vote. All 12 Democrats voted against it, along with 10 Republicans.

Attempted book bans and restrictions at school and public libraries have surged across the country, setting a record in 2022, according to the American Library Association last month.

Child Care Bill

Following heated debate, House lawmakers passed a bill that would expand child care assistance for parents in the state.

Supporters said the bill would help the state combat its workforce shortage, whereas opponents said it would cost too much without the guarantee of bringing in more workers.

The program would cost $65.6 million — which is ‘significantly less’ than the other child care proposals lawmakers heard — and it would help thousands of children, said Republican Rep. Emily O’Brien, of Grand Forks, while speaking in support of the bill on the House floor.

Democratic Rep. Alisa Mitskog, of Wahpeton, added that New Mexico — a competing oil-producing state — has already invested in child care assistance to attract workers.

But opponents said the program would be a waste of money from the state’s general fund. ‘It’s also a very leftist, socialist idea,’ Republican Rep. Jeff Hoverson, of Minot, said.

The bill passed with a 62-29 vote, with all 12 Democrats voting in support along with 50 Republicans.

Burgum, the second-term Republican governor and a staunch supporter of child care investments, said last year that the lack of affordable child care in North Dakota contributes to workforce shortages that have hurt the state’s economy. Adequate and affordable child care would help attract and retain companies in the state, he added.