AUGUSTA, Maine — Senate Democrats on Tuesday approved the bill from Gov. Janet Mills to allow doctors to perform abortions they deem necessary after Maine’s viability cutoff of around 24 weeks.
The mostly party-line vote to pass it in the Senate means the bill now goes back to the House, which is expected to take it up later Tuesday after giving initial approval to it last week by a 74-72 margin. Sen. Craig Hickman, D-Winthrop, was the lone Democrat to vote against it.
That close House vote last Thursday night came after Democrats stopped debate for nearly five hours to try to ensure they had the votes and to mull a late amendment that was ultimately voted down. Numerous absences also affected last week’s vote, as Reps. Mana Abdi of Lewiston and Anne Perry of Calais, were not present but are two of the seven Democrats who did not sign on as cosponsors to Mills’ bill.
Last week’s amendment from Rep. Ben Collings, D-Portland, an ardent progressive, would have limited post-viability abortions to cases of fetal fetal abnormalities or if the life and health of the mother was in danger.
Democrats in the Senate defeated Tuesday similar amendments from Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, that also would have banned the selling or transferring of fetal remains, except for burial or cremation purposes.
In January, Mills unveiled the bills along with other abortion-rights measures after the Democrat said during her 2022 reelection campaign she wanted no changes to existing abortion laws.
The bill has drawn passionate, intense 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.
Smaller but still notable crowds of opponents and supporters of the bill have been in the hallways of the State House and the House gallery during the floor debates Tuesday and last week.
In introducing the bill, Mills highlighted the story of a Maine woman who discovered at 32 weeks her fetus had a condition that would cause it to die shortly after birth. The woman had to travel to Colorado, where the abortion was legal at that stage, and the Democratic governor said the bill was aimed at those situations.
Post-viability abortions are relatively rare. The vast majority of abortions in Maine and nationally come in the first trimester. No abortions occurred in Maine after 20 weeks in 2021, per state data. In Colorado, which allows post-viability abortions, around 1.5 percent of abortions in the same year came at 21 weeks or later.
“When expecting parents well into their pregnancy receive devastating medical news, they need compassion and understanding in that moment,” Senate Majority Leader Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic, said. “They need support and love. More than anything, they need to be able to trust that our laws will protect them and allow them to receive the medical care they need close to home.”
While nearly every Democrat cosponsored the bill, a few members of the majority party have joined Republicans in opposing it and saying it goes too far or is not specific enough in defining “necessary” situations.
“We don’t have to do this. There’s no gun to your head,” Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, said while trying to appeal to Democratic colleagues. “You shouldn’t feel like your existence in this place is going to be snuffed out by not going along with this idea.”
Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, alluded to how the current viability cutoff has not been changed since a landmark 1993 law codified federal, Roe v. Wade-era protections in Maine. Bennett, who served in the House that year, noted he cosponsored that 1993 proposal and then-Gov. John McKernan, a Republican, supported it.
Democratic lawmakers and groups like Planned Parenthood that support the bill have said the bill will protect abortion access in Maine as states around the country continue to grapple with the fallout of last summer’s Supreme Court decision that overturned the federal right to abortion.
And supporters noted an amendment to the bill says doctors performing abortions must operate under the “standard of care” in making a professional judgment, with clarification that performing an abortion without proper licensure is a Class E misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, with additional penalties possible under existing laws.
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
A February poll of Mainers by the University of New Hampshire found 52 percent support for the governor’s bill. National polls, including one by the Associated Press in 2021, have shown opposition for abortions late in pregnancy but also support for them in the case of serious fetal abnormalities.
This story will be updated.