The following remarks were given at the press conference this morning on LD 1619 by Heather Sirocki on behalf of the Maine Right to Life Committee. Heather gave her permission to share them here on the CCRC website.
Greetings:
My name is Heather Sirocki, I live in Scarborough, and I am speaking on
behalf of the Maine Right to Life Committee.
Our members are dedicated to respecting life from womb to tomb.
Today, the Maine legislature will be considering the first of many bills
involved with the taking of innocent, unborn lives.
Let’s remember that here in Maine, after the Dobbs' decision, nothing
changed. Maine had already put into law provisions for abortion.
As you all know, Janet Mills campaigned that she would NOT expand
Maine's current abortion laws. But here we are.
Gov. Mills stated her “legislation is inspired by the story of Yarmouth
resident Dana Peirce, who had to seek an abortion out-of-state after she
discovered her child was suffering from a deadly form of skeletal dysplasia,
a random, rare genetic mutation.”
As Gov. Mills and the baby’s mother both acknowledge, the baby, sadly and
tragically, had a deadly and lethal disease. It is unclear to me why this
mother chose to go out of state for her abortion, given that she legally could
have terminated her pregnancy here in Maine since Maine’s existing law
already allows late-term abortions for non-viable babies.
Current Maine law is broad and expansive.
In Maine, one does not need to be a doctor to perform an abortion.
In Maine, one does not need to have an ultrasound before an abortion.
In Maine, abortion clinics are not required to have state safety inspections.
In Maine, taxpayers are forced to pay for abortions.
In Maine, providers are not required to have admitting privileges at a local
hospital, in case something goes wrong.
In Maine, women may access do–it–yourself, mail-order chemical
abortions, without ever seeing a medical provider.
In Maine, there is no requirement for parental consent, or notification, if a
teenage girl, is pressured into an abortion.
In Maine, there is no requirement to kill the baby before the abortion
procedure; they may be dismembered and delivered alive.
In Maine, there is no requirement for medical information to be provided
and, there is no wait period.
In Maine, more people are dying than being born.
In Maine, women are aborting more than 5 babies per day or 150 babies
per month. And sadly, in comparison, 50 Mainers also die every month of
overdose.
As a state, Maine has the oldest average age population, and we’re getting
older by the day.
If this bill passes, it will legalize abortion to due date, many weeks past
viability, for any reason, as long as the provider agrees to perform the
procedure and that provider does not need to be a doctor.
Further, LD 1619 proposes to eliminate the criminal penalty if an abortionist
is caught without a license.
It is my understanding, this baffling change would result in the abortion law
defaulting to Maine’s generic licensing laws.
In other words, if this law passes, an abortionist could perform an invasive
medical procedure that involves the late-term delivery and killing of a viable
baby, in a dirty clinic, going in blindly - without an exploratory ultrasound,
and get caught with no license, but could only be charged … with a low
level misdemeanor. How is this just?
The last thing a woman facing this difficult decision should worry about is if
the clinic is clean and the provider is licensed.
This scenario is admittedly rare, perhaps as rare as Ms. Peirce’s tragic
situation.
This scenario should not be legal, and how can anyone think this is safe?
We urge the lawmakers who have co-sponsored this sad proposal to have
a change of heart.
Women deserve better. Maine deserves better.