AUGUSTA, Maine — Year after year, abortion is one of the most contentious issues in government.
That hasn’t changed, but in Augusta on Wednesday, the question was not about banning or paying for abortions, but rather about who can perform them.
Maine lawmakers are being asked to allow physician's assistants and nurse practitioners to be allowed to perform certain non-surgical abortions, such as those that use medication to cause the abortion.
Current state law only allows doctors to perform abortions.
The bill to change the law comes from Gov. Janet Mills and is being sponsored by Speaker of the House Sara Gideon. Gideon called the current doctor-only law outdated, saying that Advanced Practice Clinicians, a term used to include physician's assistants and nurse practitioners, are far more common in medicine than they were when the law was passed.
"These barriers created from a 1970 law are unnecessary. No matter where she lives, a woman has the right to make her own health care decisions, control her future and get care from her provider of choice," Gideon said.
Supporters, including some nurse practitioners, say they are already properly trained and skilled to perform medication and other non-surgical abortions.
Opponents, however, see it very differently.
Two GOP lawmakers read letters from doctors, saying the APC's don’t have enough training in case something goes wrong.
Rep. MaryAnne Kinney (R-Knox), who said she is opposed to abortion in general, told the committee members she believes doctors need to be involved with all abortions, because APC's aren’t prepared to deal with problems that could arise.
"As far as performing the procedure itself, they don’t have the training and things can go wrong in an instant," said Kinney. "Poke that, poke the uterus, internal bleeding things that can happen that are scary, and if you don’t have the training, what are you going to do?"
Supporters say several other states, including New Hampshire, already allow the practice. The Legislative committee will have to decide if the bill goes forward.