The title of L.D. 1619 is a misrepresentation of what the bill actually stands for. A law that allows unlicensed persons who break the law to go unpunished, when performing abortions for which they are not properly trained to do, is hardly an improvement over current Maine law. It is an open invitation for medical malpractice, putting Maine women in harm’s way with no recourse after the damage is done. The removal of criminal penalties will only encourage more wrongful behavior.
Hiding a woman’s identity when completing the medical records regarding her abortion should not be lawful. Such a law could be very helpful to a sex trafficker who is eager to keep a victim’s name from being known, making it more difficult to recognize when that same victim is brought into a clinic for additional abortions. With any other medical procedures the patient’s name and other identifying information would be routinely recorded. The law should be the same for all medical procedures.
Current law allows for abortion up to the point of viability of the fetus. The further along a woman is in her pregnancy, the higher chance she has of facing medical complications, infections, subsequent pre-term birth and mental health problems, while simultaneously ending the life of an unborn child, a child capable of living outside the mother’s womb.
Supporters of abortion say that there is a distinction to be made between fetal tissue in the womb and a human being. Yet, that same fetal tissue is referred to as “human medical waste” in very small letters on the side of tractor-trailers that are seen turning into the driveway and driving up to the abortion facility on Gabriel Drive in Augusta. It would seem that the owners of those trucks have a clear understanding of the humanity of an aborted baby.
Judy Icenogle
Winslow
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