Reproductive autonomy amendment fails to gain support needed in Maine House for referendum

A bill to enshrine reproductive autonomy into the state’s Constitution failed to garner the level of support needed in the House on Tuesday to get on the ballot in November. 

As Maine Morning Star previously reported, LD 780, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Eloise Vitelli (D-Sagadahoc), would ask voters in the 2024 general election if they favor amending the Constitution of Maine to declare that “every person has a right to personal reproductive autonomy.”

If passed at the ballot, the amendment would bar Maine from interfering with that right — which would include access to abortion along with fertility treatments and other necessary reproductive health care — unless justified by a compelling state interest and done in the least restrictive way possible. 

While Maine already has some of the least restrictive abortion laws in the country — with lawmakers passing a bill last year expanding access to the procedure later in pregnancy — proponents of LD 780 have argued that adding reproductive autonomy to the Constitution would protect against a rollback of such rights in the future if the state’s political winds shift. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, many Republican-led states around the country have sought to ban or limit abortion. 

The House passed the bill 76-68 in an initial vote Tuesday, with Democrats mostly supporting the measure and Republicans opposing it. That was enough to advance the bill, but because it is a constitutional amendment, the measure requires the support of two-thirds of lawmakers to ultimately be enacted and sent to the voters.

The House voted 75-65 in favor of enactment later Tuesday, but that fell short of the margin needed. 

That came after the Senate approved the measure on a 20-13 vote last week. The Senate as of early Wednesday morning had not yet taken up the bill for an enactment vote.  

During Tuesday’s debate on the House floor, Rep. Sophia Warren (D-Scarborough) noted that because of the fall of Roe, she has fewer rights than her parents and grandparents. She said LD 780 is about allowing voters to choose what kind of state they want to live in. 

“This amendment is not radical,” she said. “It simply gives Maine people the right to decide for themselves at the ballot box.”

Republicans decried the bill, though. Rep. David Haggan (R-Hampden) said the measure is “a slap in the face to unborn babies and humanity” and that if the bill goes through, he’ll be “ashamed to be a Mainer.”

But advocates such as Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund said the measure would help safeguard essential health care in a “tumultuous post-Roe landscape.” 

In a news release after the bill failed its House enactment vote, the group blasted those who opposed LD 780.

“Last night’s vote was infuriating and shameful, but it will galvanize Mainers from all corners of the state,” said Lisa Margulies, the organization’s vice president of public affairs. “Now we know where every elected official in the House stands on reproductive rights. Mainers will remember how their elected officials voted on this bill. Mainers will show up to the polls in November ready to cast ballots, if not for a constitutional amendment protecting reproductive autonomy, for new elected leaders who will champion our rights and freedoms and encourage us to make our voices heard.”

Assistant House Majority Leader Kristen Cloutier (D-Lewiston) said in a statement after the initial House vote that “the decision to use birth control, engage in family planning and seek abortion care should belong directly to Mainers, not their elected officials.”

Cloutier added, “We’ve heard over and over again from Maine people that they want the opportunity to vote to protect their reproductive rights once and for all.”

This story was updated after the House vote Tuesday night.