Senate Majority Leader Pierce applauds critical funding for family planning services passed by Maine Legislature
AUGUSTA — Today, Senate Majority Leader Teresa S. Pierce, D-Falmouth, applauded the investments in family planning services recently passed by the Maine Legislature. Between appropriations in the biennial budget and LD 143, “An Act to Provide Funding for Family Planning Services,” sponsored by Sen. Pierce, the Legislature invested $6 million this year in protecting access to reproductive health care and a range of primary and behavioral health care delivered by family planning services, including birth control, cancer screenings, well-person care, vaccinations and testing and treatment of STIs.
“Just this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that opens the door to future restrictions on reproductive care, so this investment in the health of Maine people could not be more important or timely,” said Sen. Pierce. “Today, as reproductive rights seem to be under constant attack from some politicians, I am thinking of my late constituent Sherry Huber, a former Republican state representative who founded our state’s network of family planning services. She stood up for access to care because, like my colleagues and I, she knew that Maine is stronger when we defend the health and well-being of women, rural residents and the most vulnerable among us.”
An investment of $3 million in family planning services was included as part of a balanced, fiscally responsible two-year budget that lowers costs, protects Maine’s future and defends the rights and freedoms of Maine people. The first part of the budget, which funded baseline government services and avoided a government shutdown, was passed in March of this year. The Legislature passed the second part of the biennial budget — which funds initiatives that meet the needs of Maine people — on June 18, and the Governor signed it into law on June 20. It will take effect on September 24, 2025.
LD 143, which received bipartisan support in the Maine Senate, proposes an additional $3 million investment and is now on the Governor’s desk awaiting her signature. None of the funding allocated or proposed would go toward abortion care.
