Governor Janet T. Mills today announced a bill to improve access to critical reproductive health care for women across Maine. The bill, sponsored by Speaker of the House Sara Gideon, would allow a physician assistant in an advanced practice registered nurse to perform abortions. As Attorney General, Governor Mills introduced a similar bill during the last legislative session.

“Every women in Maine should be able to access reproductive health care when and where she needs it, regardless of her zip code,” said Governor Mills. “Allowing advanced nurse practitioners and physician practitioners and physician assistants to perform medication-administered abortions which are already permitted in other states, will ensure Maine women, especially in rural areas of our state, can access reproductive health care services. It is time to remedy this inequity that negatively impacts too many Maine women.”

“No matter where they live, every women has the right to safely make her own health decisions and to control her own future,” said Speaker Gideon. “I”m proud to sponsor this bill which will finally correct an outdated law that severly limits safe access to abortion. Women in rural Maine have been disproportionately harmed, where the sheer logistics of arranging for travel, taking time off work and securing child care serve an often insurmountable barrier to accessing the full range of family planning services. The time to move forward is now, Maine should not have to wait any longer,” she said of LD 1261 – “An Act to Authorize Certain Health Care Professionals to Perform Abortion.”