Planned Parenthood statement on Maine House vote to deny Mainers opportunity to weigh in on constitutional amendment protecting reproductive autonomy
For Immediate Release: April 10, 2024
Statement from Lisa Margulies, Esq., Vice President of Public Affairs, Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund on the Maine House of Representative’s enactment vote to advance LD 780
“The Maine House of Representatives failed the people of Maine yesterday. Just hours after a majority of that body voted to advance LD 780, and on a day when the people of yet another state in our union faced a near total ban on abortion, 65 members of the Maine House voted to prevent the people of Maine from having their voices heard at the ballot box.
This legislative session alone we have seen bomb threats and political attacks launched in response to proposed legislation that would protect reproductive care providers. We have seen lawmakers who purport to support families and freedom spread lies and hateful rhetoric about reproductive care, patients who seek this care, Maine’s current laws, LD 780 and other proposed bills -– all because these lawmakers want to take away our reproductive freedoms.
What is clear in this moment is that we have 75 champions of reproductive liberties in the Maine State House. And we have 65 elected leaders who have shown they either don’t care what their constituents want, or they are afraid to see the results of Mainers directly casting ballots on whether to protect reproductive autonomy as an explicit right in this state.
Last night’s vote was infuriating and shameful, but it will galvanize Mainers from all corners of the state. Now we know where every elected official in the House stands on reproductive rights. Mainers will remember how their elected officials voted on this bill. Mainers will show up to the polls in November ready to cast ballots, if not for a constitutional amendment protecting reproductive autonomy, for new elected leaders who will champion our rights and freedoms and encourage us to make our voices heard.”
###
Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit membership organization formed as the advocacy and political arm of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England in Maine. PPNNE has four health centers in Maine and sees more than 12,000 patients a year.