Maine Democrats have introduced legislation to further expand abortion in the state, including allowing abortion up to birth.
According to the Bangor Daily News, the expansion package includes a bill that would eliminate the state’s current viability standard for abortions deemed medically necessary, thereby allowing abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy. Other legislation would make it easier for abortionists to commit abortions on out-of-state women, eliminate insurance cost-sharing for abortion, and prohibit cities and towns from restricting abortion access.
Senate President Troy Jackson and House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross are co-sponsoring the bill that would remove gestational limits for abortion.
“Our proposed legislation makes clear that we will treat abortion for what it is, a safe medical procedure,” Talbot Ross said. “We will make it clear we trust medical professionals to provide care that is in their best judgment.”
Gov. Janet Mills defended the legislation, noting the case of a woman who traveled to Colorado so that she could abort a child who was 32 weeks gestation, due to a “rare fetal condition.”
“While Maine’s abortion laws are strong, they nonetheless still prevented Dana and other women in a similar position from being able to obtain abortion care later in pregnancy in Maine,” Mills said. “The decision to have an abortion should be made by a woman in consultation with her medical provider and no one else.”
However, it is never necessary to kill a child for a fetal diagnosis. Even if doctors predict that the child will not survive birth, she can still be given medical attention and palliative care that would allow her to pass comfortably. Instead, abortion violently and traumatically kills that child without giving her any chance at life.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart told Spectrum News that he hadn’t yet seen the proposed legislation, but noted its irony as many Republicans are currently focused on reforming the state’s child welfare system.
“Isn’t it fitting that we as pro-life folks within the Legislature are talking about how to save lives of children that the state is going to take responsibility for and is failing, and results in dead children, and they are upstairs talking about how to expand abortion and kill more fetuses,” he said. “Apparently that’s their priority.”
Maine has a history of passing radical abortion legislation. Last year, the state enacted a “buffer zone” law to limit pro-life activity outside abortion facilities. In recent years the state has 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.
