Candidate in Maine’s Gubernatorial Race Earns Endorsement from Nation’s Leading Pro-Choice Advocacy Group
For Immediate Release: October 3, 2018
Contact: [email protected]
NARAL Pro-Choice America today announced its endorsement of Janet Mills for Governor of Maine.
“Janet Mills is the champion for reproductive freedom that Mainers need right now,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “Janet’s priorities reflect the priorities of women and families all across Maine. Now more than ever, we need Janet to fight for fundamental freedoms on behalf of Mainers across the state. We are proud to endorse her campaign for Governor.”
“I am proud to earn the endorsement of NARAL Pro-Choice America, an organization that is dedicated to protecting the reproductive rights of women across America,” said Attorney General Janet Mills. “I know that access to reproductive health care, including safe and legal abortion, is vital to the independence and dignity of women across Maine, which is why as governor I will fight not only to protect these critical health care services, but to expand them across the state. I will also fight back against the anti-choice agenda pushed by my opponent, Shawn Moody, and ensure that the only people involved in personal health care decisions are a patient and their doctor – not politicians.”
Janet Mills has been Attorney General of Maine for the past five years, and is the first and only woman to hold the job. Mills fought Governor LePage’s effort to take away healthcare coverage for thousands of Maine young adults. She pushed forward a bill earlier this year aimed at helping expand abortion access in rural Maine by allowing nurse practitioners and physician assistants to deliver abortion care. Mills first entered public service as an Assistant Attorney General, where she prosecuted homicides and other major crimes. Later, she was elected District Attorney for Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford Counties, making her the first woman to be elected as a DA in New England. Mills co-founded the Maine Women’s Lobby to advocate for battered and abused women, and won election to the Maine House of Representatives herself in 2002.
Anti-choice Republican Shawn Moody is supported by Maine Right to Life Committee and supports restrictions to reduce access to reproductive freedom, including deceptive biased counseling legislation.
NARAL’s Pro-Choice Majority Makers program for the 2018 general election is the organization’s largest ever midterm political program to advance candidates fighting for “our values, our future, our vote.” NARAL is investing in diverse candidates up and down the ballot in 19 states, mobilizing members and voters through mail, phones, digital ads, door to door canvassing, TV ads, and rallies that hold anti-choice candidates accountable and lift up pro-choice champions. NARAL is focused on taking back the House with a pro-choice majority that supports our values and our futures. To read more about NARAL’s endorsed candidates, click here.
NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates are dedicated to protecting and expanding reproductive freedom for all Americans. NARAL works to guarantee that every woman has the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion. In recognition of its work defending our constitutional right to choose, Fortune Magazine described NARAL as “one of the top 10 advocacy groups in America.”