Maine Governor Janet Mills signed legislation Wednesday expanding abortion up to birth in the state. With the signature, Maine is now one of the most pro-abortion states in the nation.
The new law, which will take effect in 90 days, allows abortion up to birth if the preborn child is given a potential life-limiting diagnosis. Abortion supporters argue that abortion is necessary for children who may suffer after birth, but it is never necessary for a child to be killed in the womb based on a doctor’s diagnosis. And while the law stipulates that a physician must first sign off on the “necessity” of the procedure, that physician may be the abortionist who commits the procedure.
“Maine is following best medical practice by modernizing our laws to get politicians out of reproductive health care and to make clear that the difficult decision of whether to have an abortion later in pregnancy will be made by a woman and her doctor, not anyone else,” Mills said before signing.
“We must recognize the complexity of pregnancy,” Mills said. “And like every other health care procedure, we’ve got to take government out of the decision-making process and put the doctor and the patient in charge.”
However, health care procedures normally have the intent to heal, not kill; therefore, abortion does not fit the definition of a health care procedure. Abortion is the direct and intentional killing of a preborn child, and the government has a duty and responsibility to protect innocent human beings from unjust killing.
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In a third-trimester procedure, the child is so large that the abortion actually takes two to three days to complete. The mother may first take mifepristone, which is a drug that starves the child of nutrients it needs to survive. This may not necessarily kill the child, so the abortionist then inserts a needle filled with digoxin or another lethal substance through the mother’s abdomen or vagina. As the digoxin reaches the child through its amniotic fluid, it causes fetal cardiac arrest. It may take several days for the child to die this way. To hasten the child’s demise, the abortionist may directly inject the child with the needle. After the child dies, the abortionist induces labor and causes her to deliver her child’s body.
This violent procedure, which kills a child old enough in gestation to potentially survive outside the womb, is in stark contrast to providing the child with every comfort, care, and medical attention he or she deserves after being born.
Suzanne Lafreniere, director of the Diocese of Portland’s office of public policy, told OSV News last week that the passage of the new bill is “terribly (disappointing) not only for the state of Maine, but for women and children. The abortion lobby here got what they wanted, which is abortion on demand, for any reason, at any time,” she said.
However, Lafreniere also emphasized that the pro-life movement in the state isn’t going anywhere. “I know God’s going to do something important and wonderful in the wreckage of this,” she said.
