Lining up outdoors before 7:00 a.m. and continuing overnight for 20 hours, over 675 pro-life residents of Maine recently testified against an abortion expansion bill.
LD1619, An Act to Improve Maine’s Reproductive Privacy Laws, would make Maine the sixth state to expand abortion access up to the birth of the child. It would also remove the “viability” restriction from Maine’s abortion law. That means more children able to survive outside of the womb would be killed by abortion at the discretion of a doctor. Also, amazingly, the bill would decrease penalties for abortions performed without a license, sometimes referred to as “back-alley” abortions.
“This gives the word ‘extreme’ new meaning. It would allow the abortion of a baby up to full term, one that could survive outside the womb. That is extreme,” stated Republican Senator Lisa Keim to reporters at a press conference led by lawmakers opposing the bill.
Opponents of late abortion and infanticide stood strong and waited in line overnight on May 2 to testify. Carroll Conley, Executive Director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, posted at 6:32 a.m. on May 2 that he was next to testify against LD1619. He was one of the last speakers, followed by State Rep. Laurel Libby who testified at 7:20 a.m. In her words, the stamina and dedication of Maine residents was “remarkable.”
Mainers who testified against the abortion expansion bill were met with subject matter discrimination. Planned Parenthood lobbyists and sponsors of the bill were given three minutes or more to testify. Pro-life speakers, who vastly outnumbered abortion advocates, were limited to just one minute each. Even elected officials and leadership from the Christian Civic League of Maine were restricted based on the content of their testimony.
“This purely discriminatory move disenfranchised hundreds of Maine citizens trying to participate in the democratic process,” Representative Laurel Libby said in a press release.
The bill is expected to pass the Maine legislature and be signed by the governor, Janet Mills, who is also a sponsor of the bill. Mills received over $95,000 in financial support from Planned Parenthood for her last election, and Planned Parenthood spent in excess of $350,000 to influence Maine’s last election in favor abortion.
Editor’s Note, 5/15/23: We have corrected the date from June 2 to May 2. We regret the error.
