By Dave Andrusko
Maine’s pro-abortion Gov. Janet Mills has signed LD 1619 whose language pro-lifers assert allows abortion for any reason throughout pregnancy. A typical headline downplaying how radical the bill genuinely is reads “The bill would expand abortion access to later in a pregnancy.”
The Senate vote was not close: 20-11. In the House, however, it was much tighter: 73-69.
“LD 1619 creates a subjective standard empowering the abortionist to justify any abortion after viability,” according to Maine Right to Life. “Governor Mills’ bill removes current language that allows abortion for a woman’s life or health and replaces it with language that would allow abortions in the second and third trimesters because of an abortionist’s opinion.”
Karen Vachon, executive director of Maine Right to Life, added that Gov. Mills is returning a favor to the Planned Parenthood abortion chain, which “spent millions buying elections in Maine and around the country.”
“Pro-abortion leaders have lied repeatedly about their true intention,” Vachon said. “During the campaign in 2022, they were content with the law the way it was. In January, they announced they would propose a narrow expansion to address specific instances of tragic fetal disease and debilitation.
“Now they’ve moved the goal post once again, proposing abortion on demand, with no limitations to the point of birth.”
Supporters, such as Sen. Ann Carney, argue that “It allows patients to get the care they need with the doctor who’s been providing them with care throughout their pregnancy and close to home and family and friends can be there to support them.”
Opponents respond that the law invites abuse and will lead to healthy unborn babies being aborted.
“Where did governments before us stop in deciding who had the right to live and who had the right to die,” said Sen. Stacey Guerin. “To make it convenient for parents, the government, for business.”
The debate in the House was intense. According to Billy Kobin reported for the Bangor Daily News
The bill has drawn passionate and at-times graphic debate since. Maine’s Catholic bishop called it “radical and extreme,” and in early May hundreds of opponents of the bill — along with a smaller number of abortion-rights advocates — filled the State House for a hearing that ran 19 hours.
On Tuesday, smaller but still sizable crowds featuring mostly opponents of the bill but several supporters were lining the hallways of the State House and filling the House gallery, with some joining along with Rep. Jim Thorne, R-Carmel, as he recited the Lord’s Prayer for his floor speech.
In the hours leading up to the vote, anti-abortion onlookers in the hallway chanted “kill the bill,” sang hymns and prayed together.
And pro-abortion Democrats, emboldened by their victory, have other items on the verge of enactment. Kohn writes
While Republican-backed bills to restrict abortion access have failed this session, several other abortion-rights proposals from Democrats have cleared both chambers, including bills to prevent Maine cities and towns from restricting abortion in their jurisdictions, require private insurers to cover abortion services and prevent medical malpractice insurers from taking action against abortion providers based on anti-abortion laws in other states.