Below is a memo that the Maine GOP sent to the press following up on misleading statements made to the Maine press about her new abortion bill.
Members of the press,
Governor Janet Mills and Speaker Sara Gideon appear to have spent a lot of time misleading you on the proposal to allow non-physicians to perform abortions in Maine yesterday.
Governor Mills said in a statement, quoted by numerous media outlets, “Allowing advanced nurse practitioners and physician assistants to perform medication-administered abortions, which are already permitted in other states, will ensure Maine women, especially in rural areas of our state, can access reproductive health care services.”
But the bill Governor Mills is putting forward with the support of Speaker Sara Gideon doesn’t just allow medication-administered abortions. It allows nurse practitioners and physicians assistants to perform any abortion procedure up until viability that a physician would previously only have been allowed to perform.
We have now had Gov. Mills’ proposed legislation reviewed by three former lawmakers familiar with abortion law and policy and they concur, there is no restriction on what types of abortions can be performed if this law passes.
It appears Governor Mills thinks she can garner public support by misleading people into thinking this will only be medication-administered abortions, when in fact she would be making wholesale changes to who is allowed to perform all types of abortion procedures.
These changes would create one of the loosest regulatory frameworks around abortion in the country. We have deep concerns for the vulnerable women who will now seek abortions in clinics without a physician present and we have a lot of questions about the safety and oversight of the dozen or more new locations where abortions would be performed under this new law.
This is not the Janet Mills who promised on the campaign trail to get right to work on the issues that would make Maine grow and prosper and improve the lives of all Maine people. This is a Governor increasingly focused on liberal fringe issues to please her political base.
