A version of this article was originally published in The Daily Brief, our Maine politics newsletter. Sign up here for daily news and insight from politics editor Michael Shepherd.
Opponents of the abortion-rights bill signed into law last month by Gov. Janet Mills have until Wednesday to decide whether to mount a people’s veto campaign that would delay the measure and put it on the ballot next year.
The bill, which will allow doctors to perform abortions they deem necessary after the current viability cutoff around 24 weeks, was the most contentious one that faced lawmakers in 2023. Mills unveiled the idea in January, just a few months after she said in her campaign that she did not want to further open up the state’s permissive abortion access laws.
The context: House Democrats only just locked down the votes to pass the measure in June. The Bangor Daily News published text messages to and from key members of the majority party on Monday that showed candid reactions, including that they believed they were losing a vote that had seemed all but certain during an hours-long pause in proceedings that day.
This cause rallied Maine’s anti-abortion movement, which filled the State House for a 19-hour hearing on the bill in May and kept people there for days as lawmakers mulled when to take the bill up in the summer. Those opponents are now considering a people’s veto of the law, and they need to file an application by the end of the day Wednesday if they are serious about it.
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