
Governor Janet T. Mills (D) Signing New Abortion Legislation into Law This Morning at the State House.
Governor Janet T. Mills (D), the first woman governor of Maine and the state’s first woman AG, today signed into law legislation that puts the decision about whether to have an abortion later in pregnancy into the hands of women and their doctors – not politicians or lawyers, ensuring their patients can get care they need WHEN they need it. The signing came this moring in Augusta.
The signing came after Democratic law makers turned back attempts by Republican lawmakers to restrict access to abortion and related reproductive health care, including bills to force ultrasounds, mandate biased counselng, take away insurance coverage of abortion for low-income people and restrict access for rural Mainers.
The Governor also announced today that she has signed into law a series of other reproductive rights bills intended to protect access to aabortion in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision last June overturning Roe v. Wade. Since the Court overturned these protections, one in three Americans has lost the right to an abortion in their home states.
Maine’s current law, the Reproductive Privacy Act, allows for abortion later in pregnancy to “preserve the life or health of the mother,” but this prescriptive approach to legislating a medical procedure fails to effectively address the wide variety of circumstances sfaced by pregnant women. The legislation removes these inflexible limitations from law and, instead, states that the personal decision about whether to have an aboartion lager in pregnancy will be made by a woman in consultation with her doctor, consistent with all applicable standards of care.”
“Thanks to patients who bravely shared their stories of how bans on abortion care impacted them and caused harm, Maine has a new law that will put the decision in these situations where they belong – in the hands of patients and their doctors,” said Nicole Clegg, Acting CEO, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, Portland based. “We have enormous gratitude for Governor Mills, Speaker Talbot Ross, President Troy Jackson and a majority of lawmakers in the statehouse who listened to these stories and acted with compassion. Clinicians in Maine will now be able to provide care their patients need, when they need it, right here at home and they won’t have to fear prosecution for using their medical judgment to meet the needs of their patients.”
“Why hasn’t the Mayor of Portland or any other tongue-tied member of the Portland City Council issued a statement in support of the Governor’s signing into law – an expanded pro-abortion law,” wonders this blogger “Maybe Mayor Snyder is opposed to that legislation, but we’ll never know. Portland’s leadership is awol as usual.” Apparently the Mayor moved to Maine from New York City during the LePage administration. Maybe she saw a move to Portland as a safe haven from the progressive policies befronting her there. But, Maine didn’ turn out to be the political safe haven she sought here in Portland. The political current has changed since the Trump ally Paul LePage administration – a progressive current that the thin-skinned Mayor Kate has found untenable and accounts for her declaration that she won’t seek re-election again in this progressive environment.
“Are you with us or agin us progressive women in Maine?” Mayor Snyder. “Let us know where you stand?” asks munjoyhillnews.com.