Maine’s radical new law allowing abortion up to birth takes effect

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Maine’s radical new law allowing abortion up to birth takes effect
The Pine Tree State’s new law makes it one of only a few states that provide almost no protections for the unborn.



Maine Governor Janet Mills speaks during a press conference about the mass shooting on October 26, 2023 in Lewiston, Maine.
Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images

Nov 2, 2023
AUGUSTA, Maine (LifeSiteNews) — A radical new law in Maine that will permit abortions up to the moment of birth at the discretion of abortionists took effect last week.

Maine’s LD 1619, which was signed by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills in July, officially took effect Wednesday, October 25.

State law previously specified that abortions after a baby was deemed viable, usually about 20 weeks’ gestation, could only be performed if a woman’s “life or health” were at risk. That language, as well as criminal penalties for any non-licensed person who performs or helps to perform an elective abortion, have been stripped out.

Preborn babies in Maine are now left with virtually no protections under the new law, which authorizes abortionists to kill unborn babies at any stage of pregnancy as long as they determine the procedure “necessary in [their] professional judgment.” Pro-lifers point out that the deliberate killing of a preborn baby is never medically necessary.

Ahead of signing the radical legislation, Gov. Mills argued that specific abortion restrictions cannot be implemented at the legislative level.

“Maine law should recognize that every pregnancy, like every woman, is different, and that politicians cannot and should not try to legislate the wide variety of difficult circumstances pregnant women face,” Mills said.

The Pine Tree State’s new law makes it one of only a few states that provide almost no protections for the unborn.

“Maine is now among a handful of states with the least restrictions on abortion rights [sic],” The Portland Press Herald reported.

Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont have similar laws.

Maine’s legislation at least partially inspired by the tragic story of a mother who traveled from Maine to Colorado to abort her 32-week-old baby boy who was diagnosed with skeletal dysplasia and was predicted not to survive delivery.

“The fetus’ bones were fracturing in the womb, and [he] was suffering,” the outlet reported, adding that, if his mother had given birth to him, he “likely would have died a horrible death at birth, with delivery crushing his bones … ”

“If he somehow survived the birth, he wouldn’t have been able to breathe, she said, and would have died immediately,” The Portland Press Herald reported.

Pro-life advocates do not deny the existence of difficult pregnancies or severe fatal fetal anomalies but do argue that the intentional killing of an innocent child is not an acceptable response. Moreover, prenatal diagnoses are frequently wrong, and intentional murder does not spare a child from a horrific death.

According to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, “Abortions performed after 20 weeks’ gestation, when not done by induction of labor (which leads to fetal death due to prematurity), are most commonly performed by dilation and evacuation (D & E) procedures.”

“These particularly gruesome surgical techniques involve crushing, dismemberment and removal of a fetal body from a woman’s uterus,” the organization states.

If not dismembered, the late-term babies are murdered through lethal injection and then delivered deceased.

Mike McClellan, policy director for the Christian Civic League of Maine, argued that the “tragic” and “sad” story promoted by the media ahead of the passage of the new law didn’t justify the changed legislation, which will enable women to kill their babies at any stage of pregnancy after simply attaining the go-ahead from a physician.

Moreover, while tragic and complicated stories like those of the Maine woman with the disabled baby are often used to justify sweeping pro-abortion laws, the vast majority of abortions are not sought for medical reasons, but for social, career, or financial considerations.