LAWMAKERS OPPOSE INFRINGEMENTS ON WOMEN’S RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN HEALTH CARE DECISIONS

Senators Valentino and Cain joined by advocates, vow to defeat anti-choice bills

AUGUSTA- Senator Linda Valentino (D-Saco) and Senator Emily Cain (D-Orono) joined other legislators at a Maine Choice Coalition press conference this morning to support women’s reproductive rights and oppose anti-choice bills introduced this session.

Senator Linda Valentino speaks at this morning’s press conference. From left to right are lawmakers Rep. Megan Rochelo (D-Biddeford), Senator Emily Cain (D-Orono), Senator Rebecca Millett (D-Cape Elizabeth), Senator Colleen Lachowicz (D-Waterville), Senator Margaret Craven (D-Lewison), Rep. Linda Sanborn (D-Gorham), and Rep. Sara Gideon (D-Freeport).

“We will not allow reproductive freedom to be threatened here in Maine,” said Senator Valentino, the Senate Chair of the Judiciary Committee. “Roe v. Wade has been the law of the land for forty years. It is important for me, my children, and my grandchildren. My twelve year old granddaughter needs to have the same rights I had growing up, and I have no intention of taking those rights away from her.”

The Judiciary Committee will review three anti-choice bills this session: LD 760 would change Maine’s current informed consent laws, LD 1339 would repeal Maine’s successful adult involvement law and replace it with more burdensome requirements, and LD 1193 would give legal status to a fetus.

“Health care decisions should be made between a woman and her doctor, not between a woman, her doctor, and members of the legislature,” said Senator Cain. “We need to do what’s best for women, families, and communities, and these bills are wrong for women and wrong for Maine. We must, yet again, defeat them this session.”

The Judiciary Committee will hold public hearings on the measures in the coming weeks.

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