AUGUSTA, Maine — Abortion took the spotlight once again Monday at the State House, as a proposal to enshrine the right to “personal reproductive autonomy” in the Maine Constitution got a hearing on the would-be 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
But the Democrat-led resolution will fail unless a few Republicans back it, since proposed constitutional amendments require approval from two-thirds of each chamber to reach the November ballot. Democrats control the House, Senate and governor’s office but still need several members of the minority party to push it through the House of Representatives.
That is unlikely to happen. Last year, Democrats pushed a divisive abortion-rights expansion through the Legislature against united Republican opposition. The parties have polarized on this issue in the past decade, leaving few anti-abortion Democrats and even fewer Republicans who support abortion rights.
The resolution from Senate Majority Leader Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic, was up for a hearing in front of the Judiciary Committee on Monday morning. It would ask voters in November to decide on a constitutional amendment that would declare every person “has a right to reproductive autonomy, which is central to dignity and the liberty to determine one’s own life course.”
If voters would approve the amendment, the Maine Constitution would also be changed to say the state “may not deny or infringe on the right to personal reproductive autonomy” without a compelling state interest. It would have the effect of locking some of the nation’s most permissive abortion laws into place.
“It will ensure that our fundamental rights are maintained, regardless of who is in the Legislature or the Blaine House,” Vitelli said Monday morning while joined by dozens of supporters during a Hall of Flags rally ahead of the hearing.
Only a few anti-abortion activists with signs were at the rally, and the State House was nowhere near as crowded Monday as it was last May, when hundreds packed the building for a hearing on Gov. Janet Mills’ high-profile bill that later passed to allow doctors to perform abortions they deem necessary after viability.
Since the Supreme Court overturned in 2022 its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling from Jan. 22, 1971, that made abortion a federal right, abortion-rights advocates have won in all seven states, — ranging from reliably red Montana and Kansas to solid blue California — that have voted on amendments or measures to either enshrine abortion rights or curtail them. But more than a dozen states have also passed measures sharply restricting abortion since 2022.
Maine could follow Vermont’s lead in New England in approving a similar amendment and also join several additional states during this presidential election year with ballot measures seeking to codify abortion rights. Vitelli introduced the resolution that has several Democratic cosponsors last February, but it did not receive a hearing last year and was carried over to the shortened legislative session that is scheduled to run until April.
The Democratic-led Legislature and Mills approved several measures in 2023 to expand abortion access in Maine, including the governor’s high-profile bill and a proposal eliminating out-of-pocket costs for abortion care. The governor also supports Vitelli’s effort.
Additional bills from last year that are now law protect Maine providers from other state statutes restricting abortion and bar municipalities from enacting stricter abortion ordinances, and Democratic lawmakers defeated several Republican efforts in 2023 to limit abortion rights.
Lisa Margulies, vice president of public affairs for the Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund, said the new laws “aren’t guaranteed and are subject to the outcome of elections every two years.”
The Christian Civic League of Maine, a group aligned with evangelicals, asked supporters in an email to testify against Vitelli’s proposal, saying registering that opposition is “one of the greater weapons we have against supporters of abortion here in Maine.”
Advocates have pointed to polling showing Mainers generally support abortion rights and that a majority opposed the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade reversal in 2022.
