Ratcheting Up Abortion Extremism, Hiding Gender-Confused Runaways: The Unprecedented Blue-State Laws of 2023

Californians can expect their doctor bills to increase, and they should also plan to spend more for a cheeseburger and fries at their local fast-food restaurant, thanks to new wage requirements and regulations passed by Democratic lawmakers in 2023.

Vermont residents should prepare for a jump in their heating bills and Oregonians can expect housing costs to continue rising as a result of new laws passed in those states.

In New York, Democrats jumped on the reparations bandwagon in 2023. In Illinois, Democrats okayed non-citizen police officers. And in Minnesota, they went all-in on abortion extremism.

Democrats also continued to target guns with new laws that will likely do little if anything to curb violence in the country, and they bent over backwards to make it easier for kids in their states — and outside their borders — to undergo life-altering “gender-transition” procedures without their parents’ permission or even knowledge.

The following are some of the most controversial blue-state laws approved in 2023. Several of them are already in effect, and some go into effect in 2024.

Washington Removes Parents from the Gender-Transition Process

Washington State teens who run away from home to get an abortion or to undergo a “gender transition” can legally hide from their parents in state-licensed shelters and host homes under a law passed by Democrats last spring.

Senate Bill 5599 allows runaway youth seeking “reproductive health care” or “gender-affirming treatments” — including kids from out of state — to stay in shelters and host homes without their parents being notified for as long as they’re receiving those services.

Proponents said the law will protect kids with “unsupportive” parents and ensure that they don’t end up on the streets. Opponents called it a full-frontal assault on parental rights. Washington state Republicans unanimously opposed the measure.

“Unless there is a reason to suspect parental abuse or harm, parents deserve to know where their teenagers are,” Washington senate Republican leader John Braun said in a statement.

Washington is one of several blue states, including California and Minnesota, that have set out to be “sanctuary states” for kids seeking transgender services.

Oregon’s ‘Band-Aid-On-a-Heart-Attack’ Fix for Soaring Rent Prices

In 2019, Oregon became the first state in the nation to impose a rent-stabilization law.

Not surprisingly, it didn’t work the way Democrats intended. So, instead of scrapping it, they went back to the drawing board in 2023.

The 2019 rent-control law capped rent hikes at 7 percent plus inflation. But with sky-high inflation under the Biden administration, Oregon landlords were able to raise their rents by nearly 15 percent this year, according to the Oregon Capital Chronicle.

Senate Bill 611, which Democratic governor Tina Kotek signed in July, now caps rent increases at 10 percent in high-inflation years.

Democrats insisted that the law wouldn’t preclude other changes to fix Oregon’s housing crisis. Some even acknowledged that the bill probably wouldn’t help many people.

Opponents blasted the measure, with one Republican calling it akin to a “Band-Aid on a heart attack.” The rent-control measure, they said, will make it less likely that home-builders will invest in the state, will increase prices, and lead to reduced labor mobility. It will also incentivize landlords to hike rents the maximum amount each year.

Colorado Cracks Down on Gunmakers

Colorado Democrats made it easier for people to sue firearms manufacturers and sellers if their products are misused, part of a series of new gun laws in the state.

Senate Bill 23-168 allows people to sue members of the firearms industry — manufacturers, distributors, marketers, wholesalers, or retailers — for “unfair or deceptive trade practices in violation of the ‘Colorado Consumer Protection Act,’” including for the “negligent entrustment of a firearm industry product.” The law is intended to cut through state and federal laws that have protected gun-industry members from legal liability, according to Colorado Public Radio.

The law states that if an industry member “creates a reasonably foreseeable risk that harm would occur, the firearm industry member’s violation is presumed to be proximate cause of the harm suffered by the plaintiff.” It also removes a provision that required plaintiffs to pay a gun-industry member’s legal bills if their lawsuit failed or was dismissed.

Colorado Democrats also passed a three-day waiting period for gun purchases, expanded the state’s red-flag law, and instituted new regulations for “ghost guns.”

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the state from enforcing another law that raises the age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 following a legal challenge from a gun-rights group.

Minnesota Dems Embrace Abortion Radicalism

After winning full control of the state government in 2022, Minnesota Democrats let their leftist flags fly, approving a long list of progressive priorities in 2023. But it was abortion where North Star State Democrats went all-in on their radicalism.

In an effort to turn Minnesota into the upper Midwest’s premiere destination for abortion seekers, Democrats enacted a “fundamental right” to abortion in the state.

They got rid of all limits on abortion at any stage of pregnancy, making the state the most permissive in the country when it comes to the procedure. They axed the state’s “Positive Abortion Alternatives” program, repealed a state law stating a preference for birth over abortion, and eliminated a mandatory 24-hour waiting period and a requirement that abortions be performed in a hospital. They also repealed laws that allowed women to sue abortionists who perform abortions without consent, that prohibited people from coercing women into having abortions, and that required doctors to treat babies born alive after a botched procedure.

For abortion proponents, including Maggie Meyer, the executive director of Pro-Choice Minnesota, the 2023 legislative session was such a success that they have to essentially create an entirely new legislative agenda. “We just got everything done that we’ve been working toward over the last ten years,” Meyer told the American Prospect.

California Jacks Up Fast-Food Prices

Seemingly not content with the current mass exodus of employers from their borders, California Democrats went above and beyond in 2023 to make it even more difficult for businesses to operate in the state.

The owners of fast-food restaurants are preparing to take it on the chin with the passage of Assembly Bill 1228, which hikes the starting wage for fast-food workers to $20 an hour, the highest in the country. An association for McDonald’s franchisees — mostly small-business owners — projected that the bill will cost franchisees $250,000 per restaurant annually.

Chipotle’s chief financial officer, Jack Hartung, said on a recent earnings call that the wage hike will lead to a “mid to high single-digit price increase” at their restaurants. “We are definitely going to pass this on,” he said, according to a report by ABC.

California Democrats also approved laws increasing mandatory sick leave from three days to five and lowered the burden of proof for disgruntled workers who make retaliation claims.

With Senate Bill 525, California Democrats also hiked the minimum wage for the health-care industry to $25 an hour. Support staff, including security guards and janitors, are included in the mandated pay bump, according to the Los Angeles Times.

At the time the bill was passed, a bill analysis said its fiscal impact was “unknown.” Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration now estimates that it will cost the state $4 billion next year, with about half coming from the state’s general fund.

Both the fast-food and health-care worker wage hikes were labor-union priorities.

California Prepares for Government Health-Care Takeover

Costs for medical care could be going up in California and wait times for services could be getting much longer as the state’s Democratic leaders set the stage in 2023 for an eventual government takeover of the health-care system.

Senate Bill 770, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed in October, requires California Health and Human Services officials to begin negotiating with their federal counterparts for a waiver to re-direct all federal health-care funds into a state-run single-payer system. Under the plan, private insurance and Medicare would no longer exist, according to the Hoover Institution.

It could cost up to $500 billion annually, more than the entire state budget, according to some estimates. Advocates say the single-payer system would lead to greater health-care equity and accessibility, and would be available even to illegal immigrants in the state.

During his 2018 campaign, Newsom called government-run health care the “ideal system.”

Opponents say it would lead to a surge in demand, a bureaucratic rationing of services, and doctors fleeing California for states with freer markets.

New York Gets in the Reparations Game

Not to be outdone by other blue states like California and Illinois, New York governor Kathy Hochul signed a law in December to authorize a commission to consider how to pay reparations to black citizens for the state’s history of slavery and racial discrimination.

The reparations bills, S.1163-A/A.7691, allow Hochul and the state legislature to appoint a nine-member task force to recommend ways to redress past discrimination. Hochul said that New Yorkers “have a moral obligation to reckon with all parts of our shared history.”

Racial reparations task forces in other states have proposed expensive payouts to black residents whose ancestors were enslaved: a California task put the figure at $1.2 million per person, while a San Francisco task force put it at a whopping $5 million, with additional income supplements for low-income residents for the next 250 years.

New York has a projected $4.3 billion budget deficit for fiscal 2024.

New York abolished slavery in 1827, though legal racial discrimination continued for generations. State senate minority leader Robert Ortt (R., N.Y.), who opposes the reparations task force, said New York paid its debt for slavery during the Civil War.

“A divisive commission to consider reparations is unworkable,” he said. “As we’ve seen in California, I am confident this commission’s recommendations will be unrealistic, will come at an astronomical cost to all New Yorkers and will only further divide our state.”

Polls show that a vast majority of Americans are opposed to the idea of race-based reparations.

Vermont Clean Heat Act Stretches the Definition of ‘Affordable’

The so-called “Affordable Heat Act” passed by Vermont Democrats in 2023 is looking like it will be the opposite of affordable for many of the state’s residents.

The bill, S.5, stems from a 2020 “Global Warming Solutions Act,” which commits the state to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. As part of their plan to get there, Democrats will require fuel dealers to earn “clean heat credits,” to institute new energy-efficient technologies, and to pay if they don’t meet their goals.

The state’s Public Utility Commission will be tasked with developing and implementing the clean-heat programs, with the final rules submitted by January 2025, the Associated Press reports.

Republican governor Phil Scott vetoed the bill, as he did with a similar proposal last year, arguing that utility companies will pass the increased costs for the mandated efficiency projects onto consumers. But Vermont Democrats overrode the veto.

Opponents called it a carbon tax in all but name only. “It is going to increase the cost of living for Vermonters of all economic backgrounds,” state representative Jarrod Sammis, a Libertarian, said of the law, according to a public radio report.

The conservative Ethan Allen Institute predicted a “Carbon Doom Spiral” that will “punish low- and moderate-income Vermonters with higher and higher fuel charges.”

Non-citizen police officers get the OK in Illinois

Illinois citizens who come into contact with police officers in the state may be surprised to find that some of the officers they encounter are not American citizens themselves.

Amid a statewide shortage of police officers and ongoing challenges with recruitment and retention of cops, Illinois’ far-left governor J.B. Pritzker signed House Bill 3751, which no longer requires U.S. citizenship to be hired as a police officer in the state.

People who are in the country illegally still are still not eligible, but the law, which Pritzker signed over the summer, permits non-citizens who are “legally authorized to work in the United States” to apply for police officer positions, as long as they are legally allowed to obtain, carry, purchase, or possess a firearm under federal law, according to media reports.

Republicans called it a “fundamentally bad idea,” while the Fraternal Order of Police called it a “potential crisis of confidence in law enforcement.”

Illinois congresswoman Mary Miller, a Republican, said on X, formerly Twitter, that “no sane state would allow foreign nationals to arrest their citizens, this is madness.”