Maine Governor Signs Bill Legalizing Abortion Up to Birth
Maine Governor Janet Mills has signed into law a radical bill legalizing abortion up until the moment of birth.
The bill (LD 1619), “An Act to Improve Maine’s Reproductive Privacy Laws,” changes the law in Maine for when a late term abortion can be legally performed.
Previously, Maine’s law permitted late-term abortion to “preserve the life or health of the mother.” That’s something that is essentially never required.
LD 1619 removes this requirement, instead only requiring a licensed physician to determine that it is necessary.
The term “necessary” is nowhere defined in the bill, and that’s exactly the point. Any physician can determine that any abortion is necessary for any reason whatsoever.
A physician can deem an abortion necessary if a woman is facing financial difficulties, if it will be emotionally distressful, if she prefers to have a male baby instead of a female one, or for any other reason.
Additionally, the bill “removes the criminal penalties for performing an abortion without being licensed as a physician” and for “performing an abortion after viability of the fetus when it was not necessary for the preservation of the life or health of the mother.”
The new law places Maine alongside six other states, and Washington, D.C., which permit abortion up until the moment of birth: Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Vermont.
“Maine law should recognize that every pregnancy, like every woman, is different, and that politicians cannot and should not try to legislate the wide variety of difficult circumstances pregnant women face,” said Governor Janet Mills in a statement after signing the bill.
She added:
Instead, we should recognize the complexity of pregnancy and, like every other health care procedure, take government out of the decision-making process and put the doctor and patient in charge.
Today, the State of Maine is following best medical practice by modernizing our laws to get politicians out of reproductive health care and to make clear that the difficult decision of whether to have an abortion later in pregnancy will be made by a woman and her doctor – not anyone else.
Though the governor asserts that LD 1619 “modernizes” the law in Maine, it doesn’t.
The bill takes Maine backwards morally, ethically and legally by stating that no preborn baby, at any stage of pregnancy, has any rights or protections from being aborted. That fact should shock and grieve all of us.
In a statement following Gov. Mill’s signing of LD 1619, Carroll Conley, Executive Director of the Christian Civic League of Maine (CCLM), a Focus on the Family-allied state family policy council, called the bill “the most extreme abortion law in the country.”
Conley added:
I’m heartbroken … for the women who will be deceived to believe that late term abortion is the ‘kind’ option. For the babies whose lives will be snuffed out before they even draw their first breath. For our beloved state, that is embracing a culture of death.
This is not the future I want for Maine.
It’s clear for scientific and philosophical reasons that human life begins at conception. To enact a law that violates preborn children’s inviolable right to life is not modernization, it’s barbarization.
If you are experiencing an unexpected pregnancy and want to learn more about your options, you can visit My Choice Network here.
When you need someone to talk to about your baby, or whatever else you’re going through, we’re here. Please reach out. 1-800-A-FAMILY.
Related articles and resources:
Dealing With Unplanned Pregnancy
When It’s Not Too Late: Can The Abortion Pill Be Reversed?
Counseling Consultation & Referrals
Maine Legislators Callously Pass ‘Radical and Extreme’ Abortion Bill
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