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Debates about abortion are often emotionally fraught as people bring strongly held beliefs to the conversation. That was evident in the hours of testimony that lawmakers heard on bills on the topic last month.
That emotion can sometimes obscure what is actually happening. Under current law, abortion is illegal in Maine after a fetus is viable, typically around 24 weeks, unless it is to save the life or health of the mother. That strict limitation has meant that a small number of pregnant people have had to leave Maine for medical care when dire complications were found late in their pregnancies.
One of those people is Dana Peirce of Yarmouth. She has bravely shared her devastating story of learning 32 weeks into her pregnancy that her son Cameron had a fatal condition that led to broken bones in the womb and his rib cage was too small for his lungs. She wanted to spare her son more pain, but an abortion could not be performed in Maine. She spent at least $25,000 traveling out of state for the procedure.
“Mine was a very sad situation made much worse by Maine’s current law,” Peirce said in her testimony to lawmakers. “Today, you have an opportunity to make sure no other Maine families have to go through what mine did.”
“Everyone deserves safe, legal, compassionate, affordable healthcare and support throughout pregnancy,” she added. “Abortion for any reason is a deeply personal decision, one that should be left to pregnant people and their medical team.”
To help the very small number of people like Peirce whose circumstances don’t fit into current legal standards, a bill, LD 1619, advanced by Gov. Janet Mills and sponsored by nearly every Democrat in the Maine Legislature, would change when an abortion after viability could be performed to say “only when it is necessary in the professional judgment of a physician.” A late amendment added language that this judgment must be consistent with current standards of care.
Importantly, this bill would not change Maine’s definition or timeline for viability.
Medical providers and women who testified in support of the bill said this change will allow abortions for the tiny number of pregnant people who seek them because of grave fetal abnormality or maternal health threats that were discovered late in pregnancy.
While we are concerned about how the Judiciary Committee handled the bill and potential amendments to it, we believe the updated exemptions in the legislation deserves support.
This bill is not the extreme caricature that some have claimed. It will not allow abortions at any time for any reason, as some opponents claim. It will not allow abortion up until the moment of birth because a mother changed her mind, another claim we’ve heard.
Supporters of the bill say it is only about helping the exceptionally small number of people who need abortions because of fetal abnormalities or maternal health threats that were identified late in pregnancy. While the bill will help these people, it does contain some additional provisions, including the removal of criminal penalties for those who assist with abortions after viability in these circumstances. This will help thaw the chill that some health care providers said prevented them from providing needed care to people like Peirce.
Beyond all the heated rhetoric around the bill, however, there are fundamental concepts that guide our thinking. Women, not government or politicians, should be in charge of their bodies. Decisions about reproductive care, including abortion, should be made by those who are pregnant, their families and their medical providers.
However, because of decades of state abortion laws, the government has long had a role in reproductive health care decisions. LD 1619 takes small steps to lessen that government involvement and to empower those who receive late and devastating news about their pregnancies.
That is a reasonable step.
