The new Democrat governor of Maine intends to make it easier for women in her state to obtain an abortion.
Gov. Janet Mills introduced a bill Thursday that would allow non-physicians to perform abortions.
The legislation, sponsored by House Speaker Sara Gideon, a Democrat, would allow a physician assistant, a nurse practitioner, nurse-midwives, and other medical personnel to perform the procedure.
In a statement about the measure, Mills referred to abortion as “reproductive health care,” the term commonly used by the abortion industry.
“Every woman in Maine should be able to access reproductive health care when and where she needs it, regardless of her zip code,” Mills said, adding that allowing non-physicians to perform abortions would “ensure Maine women, especially in rural areas of our state, can access reproductive health care services.”
“It is time to remedy this inequity that negatively impacts too many Maine women,” the governor said:
Mills received praise from Planned Parenthood and the ACLU Thursday for introducing the bill, identical to one she backed in 2018 when she was still Maine’s attorney general.
In January, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Mills joined with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, continuing their commitment to make Maine an abortion-friendly state, reported Maine Public.
Planned Parenthood’s primary source of profit is abortion and obtains upwards of 35 percent of the U.S. abortion market, a figure that well overtakes the market shares of leaders in other industries.
Republican lawmakers in the state House, however, say they will vote against removing the ban on non-physicians performing abortions.
“I agree with those bans and I think they should stay in place,” Rep. Beth O’Connor said, according to Fox 23 News. “This will be a party line vote, probably, and hopefully, a few [Democrats] from the other side will be swayed to say ‘no’ to this.”
While the abortion industry and its allies insist there are no “clinically relevant’ data that suggest more complications with the procedure when performed by non-physicians, according to National Right to Life, one problem in acquiring true statistics on the comparison of complications in abortions performed by physicians versus non-physicians is that no national requirement for data reporting exists for the abortion industry.
Secondly, the pro-life organization states abortion clinic health inspections have a history of being lax or ignored altogether.
The Maine chapter of the ACLU said the prohibitions against additional medical personnel performing abortions are “outdated” and added the prohibitions on who performs abortions need to be lifted so more women in Maine can obtain the procedure.
“There are only three publicly accessible health centers in Maine (in Augusta, Bangor and Portland) where a patient can get an aspiration abortion or any abortion care after 10 weeks,” the organization said in a statement.
Alison Bates, a nurse practitioner with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England added that the ban “makes it harder for [her] patients to access the care they need, is medically unnecessary, and contributes to abortion stigma.”
According to the Bangor Daily News, if the bill becomes law, the number of abortion clinics in Maine could increase from 3 to 18.
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