An effort to amend the Maine Constitution to enshrine the right to an abortion is coming up short.
FILE - Participants in the annual anti-abortion rally surround the state house in Augusta, Maine, Jan. 14, 2012. The measure fell shy of a two-thirds majority in the Maine House Tuesday, April 9, 2024 failing to clear the hurdle for sending the amendment to voters for ratification. An effort to enshrine the right to abortion in the Maine Constitution appears to have failed after a vote to send the proposal to voters for ratification fell short in the House.
Maine already has one of the nation’s least restrictive abortion laws. The amendment was an effort to head off any future legislative debate on the issue. “Last night’s vote was infuriating and shameful, but it will galvanize Mainers from all corners of the state," Lisa Margulies, from the Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund, said Wednesday morning, chastising lawmakers for not letting voters have the final word at the ballot box. “Now we know where every elected official in the House stands on reproductive rights.”
Maine was one of more than a dozen states considering ballot measures dealing with abortion for this year or for 2026. Amendments are currently on the November ballot in Florida, Maryland and New York.seven times since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. In each case, the side backed by abortion-rights advocates prevailed — even in conservative states such as Kansas and Kentucky and swing states such as Michigan and Ohio.
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