GOP legislators want to overturn abortion law, from total ban to mifepristone restrictions
Roughly two dozen people gathered at the State House on March 27, 2025 for the annual "Hands Around the Capitol' lobbying effort. (Photo by Eesha Pendharkar/ Maine Morning Star)
Republican legislators are proposing a number of changes to the state's abortion laws, including a total ban, removing health insurance coverage and rolling back access to mifepristone.
The Judiciary Committee is hearing public testimony starting at 9:30 a.m. on Friday on seven of these bills, which comes after about two dozen people gathered at the State House on Wednesday for the annual 'Hands Around the Capitol' lobbying effort, during which organizers also called on young people to get involved in the anti-abortion movement.
House Minority Leader Katrina Smith (R-Palermo) and Sen. Dick Bradstreet (R- Kennebec) spoke at the event, calling for federal intervention to provide resources for women facing unplanned pregnancies and the establishment of pregnancy resource centers. These centers, also called crisis pregnancy centers, often present themselves as a resource for pregnant people, but most are run by anti-abortion groups and do not provide or refer for abortion services.
Smith and Bradstreet framed the event as supporting women's rights while providers say the legislation being advocated for would harm women.
'Mainers have made it clear that access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive healthcare is essential to their lives. Since the fall of Dobbs in 2022, they have twice elected a pro-reproductive rights majority to the statehouse,' said Maine Family Planning President and CEO George Hill in a statement to Maine Morning Star.
Hill said, on the other hand, the bills before the Legislature 'would harm patients' health by limiting access to essential sexual and reproductive health care.'
The most extreme of the proposals comes from Rep. Abigail Griffin of Levant in LD 975, which would repeal the state laws authorizing abortion.
The bill would also change the definitions of 'human being' and 'person' within the Maine Criminal Code to include 'all human beings beginning at the moment of conception.' These definitions would apply to the statutes prohibiting murder, assault, domestic violence assault and other offenses against a human being or a person.
In light of these changes, the bill would also repeal the crimes of elevated aggravated assault on a pregnant person and domestic violence elevated aggravated assault on a pregnant person.
Other proposals take a more targeted approach by seeking to walk back abortion protections added in recent years.
Maine shield law protecting reproductive, gender-affirming care takes effect Friday
LD 682 would alter the 2023 law that allows abortions late in a pregnancy if a doctor deems the procedure to be necessary. The bill would change the statute to only when it is 'medically necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother,' rather than when a licensed physician determines it is necessary, or when 'the fetus is diagnosed with a fetal anomaly that will, with a reasonable certainty, result in the death of the child within three months after birth.'
The bill would also reestablish criminal penalties for performing an abortion without a license or after viability as well as require that the report of abortions made to the state include the race, marital status and level of education of the person on whom the abortion is performed.
It is sponsored by Sen. David Haggan of Penobscot and nine Republican co-sponsors, including Assistant Senate Minority Leader Matthew Harrington of York and Assistant House Minority Leader Katrina Smith of Palermo.
Lawmakers' ongoing debates about MaineCare, the state's Medicaid program, are also manifesting in abortion law.
Rep. Reagan Paul of Winterport earlier attempted to remove coverage of abortion under MaineCare through a floor amendment in the two-year budget that failed.
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Maine started requiring MaineCare coverage of abortion in 2019 and has seen proposals to repeal the law every session since.
This session, that proposal is in LD 253, sponsored by Rep. Kathy Javner of Chester and co-sponsored by Paul and others.
Three bills directly discuss abortion by medication, but two specifically aim to restrict access to it.
The vast majority of abortions in Maine last year used medication. Over 80% of Maine Family Planning patients, more than 60% of Mabel Wadsworth patients, and roughly 63% of Planned Parenthood of New England's relied on medication abortion for procedures in 2024, according to the providers.
LD 866 would prohibit purchasing or obtaining any abortion drugs online. It would also require a licensed health care professional to oversee medication abortions in person. It's sponsored by Griffin and seven Republican co-sponsors.
LD 887 would make it a Class C crime — a low level felony, punishable by up to five years in prison — to provide or attempt to provide an abortion drug to a patient without physically examining the patient, being physically present for the abortion, scheduling a follow-up visit with the patient and providing them with a catch kit and medical waste bag. The bill also would also make manufacturers liable for the improper disposal of abortion drugs, with a civil penalty of $20,000.
LD 887 is sponsored by Paul and five Republican co-sponsors, including Griffin and Haggan.
Particularly since the overturn in 2022 of Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that had established the right to abortion, there have been ongoing attempts to restrict medication abortion across the country, including efforts to reinterpret the dormant Comstock Act to criminalize the mailing of abortion-related drugs and legal challenges to the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone, one of two pharmaceuticals used in medication abortion.
In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected attempts to roll back access to mifepristone.
Reproductive health providers call for more state funding as federal threats loom
While President Donald Trump has reinstated some of the anti-abortion policies from his first term, the president has yet to act on the FDA's loosening of restrictions to accessing abortion pills since then. On Tuesday, the Senate confirmed Trump's pick for FDA commissioner, Marty Makary, who wouldn't commit to specific action on mifepristone during his confirmation hearing, though he's been public about his anti-abortion views.
Related to medication abortion, Paul proposed LD 1007, which would add to what health care professionals are required to inform a patient to obtain informed consent for such a procedure.
Currently, medical professionals are required to inform the patient at least the following for all abortion procedures: that the person is pregnant, the number of weeks since the probable conception date, the risks associated with the pregnancy and abortion technique to be performed, and, at the patient's request, alternatives to abortion such as adoption and information about economic assistance that can be accessed to help carry the fetus to term.
The bill would add to this list, solely for medication abortions, 'specific information about the potential ability of qualified health care professionals to reverse the effects of the abortion.'
Paul also proposed LD 1154, which would require that for all abortions, providers also inform patients about something called perinatal hospice services.
As defined by the bill text, these services mean comprehensive support after a prenatal diagnosis indicating the fetus has a life-limiting condition and may die before or shortly after birth.
The support would start from the time of diagnosis through the time of birth and death of the child, including counseling and medical care by maternal and fetal medical specialists — or also a member of the clergy, social worker or 'specialty nurse focused on alleviating fear and ensuring that the woman and the woman's family experience the life and death of the child in a comfortable and supportive environment.'
Eesha Pendharkar contributed reporting to this story.
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