Maine AG: Abortion laws shouldn’t be concerned with a child who isn’t ‘out’ yet

Maine is currently in the process of deliberating a highly contentious bill that would remove nearly all limitations on abortion and effectively allow it through all nine months of pregnancy. Speaking in defense of the radical bill, the state’s attorney general asserted that preborn children do not possess any legal rights until they are “out” of the womb.

Hundreds of pro-life Maine citizens attended a hearing on Monday to voice their opposition to An Act to Improve Maine’s Reproductive Laws, or LD 1619, which would make Maine’s abortion laws some of the most permissive in the country, if enacted. During the nearly 20-hour hearing, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey stated the abortion decision shouldn’t take the preborn child into account.

“This is a woman making a decision about what to do with her body and what’s going on with her body,” Frey said. “There isn’t a live child that’s been — that’s out at this point, that this decision is concerned with.”

LD 1619 was proposed in early April by Gov. Janet Mills in a purported effort to allow abortion later than current viability standards, which is typically considered to be 24 weeks (even though preborn children as young as 21 weeks gestation have survived and thrived), or when a licensed physician signs off on the procedure. However, there are currently no laws prohibiting abortion after viability in the state. The bill would remove language that penalizes a non-licensed person from performing or aiding in an abortion and, according to the Maine Right to Life Committee, “would encourage the Kermit Gosnells of the world to specifically come to Maine since there are no penalties and only protection for abortionists.” 

“This bill ignores what is in the best interest of the life and health of the mother and her unborn child and only seeks to expand the abortion industry’s stake hold in Maine by allowing abortions for any reason up until birth with no punishment for those who harm women and their babies,” said Suzanne Lafreniere of the Catholic Diocese of Maine.

As Live Action News recently reported, Maine is no stranger to extreme abortion legislation. Last year, the state enacted a “buffer zone” law to limit pro-life activity outside abortion facilities and, in recent years, also passed legislation to require Medicaid and any insurance companies that cover prenatal care to also cover abortion, along with a law allowing non-physicians to commit surgical aspiration abortions.

Despite the state’s extreme laws, State Rep. Laurel Libby, who testified at the hearing, praised the “remarkable” movement of pro-lifers showing up to oppose the bill.

“What I’ve seen is that there is not just enthusiasm for the public hearing Monday and yesterday, but to continue the efforts moving forward and make sure that people are eager to keep reaching out to their legislators and advocating for them to kill this bill,” Libby told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.

She continued, “Yesterday and today, for the past 18 hours, we have seen the heart of Maine… We’ve seen the indomitable spirit of true Mainers… Their pure intention to speak up for life and to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. This committee has forgotten the meaning of ‘we the people’ and has adopted the philosophy of the tyranny of the majority.”

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