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Nearly two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that there is no federal constitutional right to abortion. The decision upended the nearly 50-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling, and it opened the floodgates to numerous state laws around the country further limiting or nearly outright banning abortion.
Several states have responded by passing amendments to their constitutions protecting reproductive rights. Similar amendments are under consideration in more than a dozen states, including Maine.
Although Maine currently has strong laws to protect reproductive autonomy, there are efforts every year to chip away at these protections, which could be eroded or eliminated in the future.
To protect these rights, Sen. Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic, has proposed an amendment to the state constitution to stipulate that every person has a right to reproductive autonomy.
To be clear, Maine’s proposed amendment is not just about abortion. It would cover other reproductive rights, such as access to contraception, sterilization and in vitro fertilization.
The latter is especially important after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos, which are used in IVF, can be considered children, with the rights of children. Several fertility clinics in Alabama have suspended IVF services, leaving families in the midst of treatment in limbo. This prompted Alabama lawmakers to quickly consider legislation to shield IVF clinics from the impacts of the ruling and to protect would-be parents’ access to IVF treatments.
A constitutional amendment protecting reproductive autonomy could help Maine avoid this type of turmoil and uncertainty around all types of family planning, including contraception, which is also under threat from court rulings and legislation in some states.
This amendment is about protecting the rights of individuals to make their own decisions about family planning. These decisions include whether to have children, when to have them, how many to have. These decisions are fundamental for any family and people in Maine (and elsewhere) should be able to make these decisions without interference from politicians, judges and others.
A few states, including nearby Vermont, have amended their constitutions to protect these rights. More than a dozen others may have such amendments on their ballots this November.
The language of Maine’s proposed amendment mirrors some of the successful amendments in other states, notably Ohio and Vermont.
Under Vitelli’s bill, the proposed constitutional amendment would read: “Every person has a right to personal reproductive autonomy, which is central to dignity and the liberty to determine one’s own life course. The State may not deny or infringe on the right to personal reproductive autonomy unless the denial or infringement is justified by a compelling state interest and is accomplished using the means that least denies or infringes on the right.”
Passage of LD 780 would not be the final word on the matter. If approved by lawmakers, the question would then go to voters in November. The proposed ballot question reads: “Do you favor amending the Constitution of Maine to declare that every person has a right to personal reproductive autonomy?”
Polls generally show strong support among Mainers for abortion rights, one aspect of reproductive autonomy.
For decades, the federal guarantee of a right to abortion was tempered by standards for restrictions, which were set in the Roe decision and further defined in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Adding this proposed amendment to the Maine Constitution would ensure those types of protections, for many types of reproductive health services, for now and for future generations.