July 19 (UPI) — Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill into law Wednesday that will allow doctors the ability to approve “necessary” abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Mills’ office said in a statement she signed the legislation to put the decision whether to approve an abortion in the later stages of pregnancy “in the hands of women and their doctors.” Previously, abortion later in pregnancy was only allowed to save the life of a pregnant woman.
“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.
“Instead, we should recognize the complexity of pregnancy and, like every other health care procedure, take government out of the decision-making process and put the doctor and patient in charge.”
The law, called An Act to Improve Maine’s Reproductive Privacy Laws, was supported by the Maine Council of Churches — an organization that represents 430 protestant congregations in the state — and the Maine Medical Association, an organization for doctors.
It came after a Portland Press Herald news report about a woman, Dana Peirce, who had to travel out of state for an abortion when she discovered during a 32-week medical scan that her child was suffering from a deadly genetic mutation called skeletal dysplasia.
Peirce joined Mills for the bill signing during an event the Press Herald described as “solemn.”
“We learned during the 32nd week of a seemingly healthy pregnancy that the baby I was carrying, Cameron, had a rare and lethal form of skeletal dysplasia. He had multiple broken bones, and if he survived until delivery, he would not have been able to breathe outside of me,” Peirce said.
“In this moment of shock and grief, my doctors here in Maine could not help us, because state law at the time banned abortions later in pregnancy. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to have the social and financial resources — the abortion alone cost $25,000 — to travel across the country for abortion care to end our son’s suffering.”
