Ronald Russell of Verona Island - voted for it. Only seven Democrats refused to sponsor this year’s measure. Now there are few who cross party lines on the issue. Roughly a decade ago, many anti-abortion Democrats and abortion-rights Republicans sat in the Legislature. In Colorado, which allows post-viability abortions, around 1.5 percent of abortions in the same year came at 21 weeks or later.īut the standoff reflected new political polarization, old alliances and cultural anxieties in a state where the Catholic church is a major institution. No abortions occurred in Maine after 20 weeks in 2021, per state data. The vast majority of abortions in Maine and nationally come in the first trimester. Post-viability abortions are relatively rare. “This is not a compassionate bill,” Assistant House Minority Leader Amy Arata, R-New Gloucester, said.

Their side called it “an abortion-on-demand bill.” 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. Maine’s Catholic bishop called the governor’s bill “radical and extreme” in a rare rebuke of a politician in January. It instantly became a flashpoint with Republicans and Maine’s anti-abortion movement. She unveiled the bills along with other abortion-rights measures in January after saying during her 2022 reelection campaign that she wanted no changes to abortion access laws. 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. Mills has 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. It was a dramatic evening for a measure that seemed to be sailing toward passage ever since the Democratic governor and leading lawmakers in her party unveiled the idea alongside a list of other abortion-rights bills in January, prompting a fight with Maine’s religious right.

“The stench in this building is overwhelming,” House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, said after returning to the microphone and launching his party into a series of roll-call votes that delayed proceedings past 1 a.m.

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