Maine Legislature Must Fund Abortion or Face Litigation
By Mike Hein
May 9, 2007 - 8:01:46 AM
MCLU Threatens Court Action if Abortion Bill Rejected
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| Maine Civil Liberties Union |
In its support for abortion funding for low-income women, the Maine Civil Liberties Union has threatened to sue the State of Maine. This threat of litigation was included in an undated four-page letter to the Maine Legislature's Joint Committee on Health and Human Services. It was submitted as written testimony on April 26, 2007 during a public hearing of Legislative Document (LD) 1309, "An Act to Provide Equity in Funding Women's Health Services." Read in part to the committee by Zachary L. Heiden on behalf of the MCLU, this clearly worded public document states that court action will result if the current pending abortion legislation is not passed.
The letter lays out the MCLU's argument that current Maine law regarding abortion is unconstitutional, and then goes on to define the remedy for this to be either legislative action or court action. The basis of the MCLU's claim lies in their perception of "gender-based discrimination" and "discrimination among the classes" in current Maine law regarding abortion.
The testimony states, "Though our [Maine] Constitution and laws guarantee a women a full range of choices, Maine has decided that it will only fund one choice, effectively denying the poor women control over their medical decisions. This gap must be addressed, and Maine must adopt a funding scheme that is neutral with regard to the constitutionally-protected choices available to women. Current Maine law is not neutral and, therefore, is unconstitutional."
The letter continues with a very clear admonition to the Legislature: "The MCLU wishes you to know that the Maine Constitution requires passage of LD 1309 [the pending abortion funding bill]."
The letter goes on to lay out the MCLU's claims of discrimination: "Our constitutional sense of fairness does not allow us to tolerate discrimination among the classes. Maine does not discriminate in this way for any other medical procedure" and "LD 1309 removes a conspicuous gender-based discrimination from the [Maine] law by declaring that women are just as capable as men of making medical decisions for themselves."
Finally, the document concludes with the threat of litigation if the abortion funding bill is not passed: "In states where the legislature was unwilling to remedy an unfair discrepancy in reproductive funding for low-income women, advocates have had to turn to the courts. In those states, it took years of costly litigation to learn what the Maine legislature should already know: that the state must remain neutral when funding a woman's constitutionally-protected reproductive health care choices."
The MCLU has not made this public hearing testimony available on its website.
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