AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine House returned to session Friday afternoon after Democrats claimed victory late Thursday night after narrowly passing Gov. Mills’ expanded abortion bill 74-72.
It marked a big legislative step for the bill that was the topic of a 19-hour-long public hearing and hours-long work sessions over the past few months.
“Ultimately we hope it will land on the governor’s desk for a signature,” Rep. Amy Kuhn, D-Falmouth, said Friday.
Kuhn and fellow House Democrat Erin Sheehan, who represents part of Biddeford, were part of the public hearing and workshop process as they sit on the Judiciary Committee. Kuhn said her colleagues took a lot of time to figure out what the right scope of the bill should be and decided it was best to leave the decisions to health care providers.
If passed, LD 1619 would allow abortions any time before birth if deemed necessary by a health care provider. Maine’s current state law bans abortions after a fetus becomes viable outside the womb, at roughly 24 weeks, unless a mother’s life is at risk.
Nicole Clegg, Interim CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, said the vote “was a vote of trust in pregnant people and their doctors to make complex, deeply personal private medical decisions without political interference.”
However, the lengthy process of this bill is wearing on some House Republicans. During debate over LD 1619 Thursday, Republican Jack Ducharme, of Madison, said Speaker of the House Rachel Talbot Ross called for a 30-minute break, which he remarked rarely happens during that process.
After the 30-minutes passed, Ducharme said he and his Republican colleagues returned to the Chamber, but the Democrats didn’t return on time and the break lasted nearly five hours.
Ducharme said before Friday’s session that there is still a lot of other work to be done in the House but added he and other lawmakers will continue to fight for Mainers who oppose LD 1619 as the bill will eventually return to the House for another vote.
Meanwhile, across the hall, senators had a brief session Friday morning, only voting on one bill. It moved quickly because, as Sen. Stacey Guerin, R-Penobscot, said they’re waiting on bills from the House.
“Organizationally, the House has done very poorly on managing the calendar and now we’re in extra session and it’s costing the taxpayer tens of thousands of dollars a day,” she added.
Lawmakers and legislative officials estimate the cost of each extra day of the session could cost nearly $50,000.
That spending threat looms before the Senate takes up the controversial abortion bill, one that Guerin called the “worst bill” she’s seen in her tenure in the State House.
Democrat Anne Carney, of Cumberland, said she’s been proud of what her colleagues have accomplished thus far, even before LD 1619 comes before more votes.
Carney pointed out that the support behind bills aimed to help the Wabanaki Tribes was a bright spot. A bill that would grant the tribes the same rights as other federally recognized tribes passed both chambers with more than a two-thirds majority, which would be enough to override a veto by Mills who is against the bill.
Regarding LD 1619, Carney said the Senate is ready to get to work on the bills in front of them and she is more focused “on the quality of the conversation rather than the duration.”
Democrats this week also passed the bill in both chambers that would create a statewide paid family and medical leave program. It still needs funding from the Appropriations Committee before it could be signed into law.
When LD 1619 does come to the Senate, Republican Eric Brakey, of Androscoggin, said he plans on bringing a floor amendment. He said he disagrees with the “open-ended” wording of the bill as it relates to a physician approving an abortion late in pregnancy. He added the amendment would “make the bill be what the governor pitched it as.”
“Make it narrow, put guardrails on it, and say this is about these rare cases of fatal fetal abnormalities when it’s diagnosed by a physician, in the case of this bill, it would be by two physicians, both coming to the opinion that the baby could not be born alive and survive for more than 30 days,” Brakey said.
Brakey did admit he does not think most senators would be behind the amendment.
After passage from the House, LD 1619 is expected to be passed through the Democratic-controlled Senate and signed by supporter Gov. Mills into law.