Press Release California
Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Endorses Maine Governor Janet Mills for Reelection
For Immediate Release:Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Contact: [email protected]
NARAL Pro-Choice America Endorses Maine Governor Janet Mills for Reelection
Governor Mills earns endorsement of nation’s leading reproductive freedom advocacy group
Washington, DC — Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America announced its endorsement of Maine Governor Janet Mills, a champion for reproductive freedom, in her bid for reelection. Governor Mills has led the state since she was first elected in 2018 and is looking to retain her seat against anti-choice Republican former governor Paul LePage.
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju released the following statement:
“Governor Janet Mills is a reproductive freedom champion who has dedicated her career to fighting for the health and well-being of Mainers, including their freedom to decide if and when to start or grow a family. If Paul LePage is elected, there’s no doubt he will plow ahead with his out-of-touch MAGA extremist agenda to ban abortion and roll back other fundamental rights. Maine will remain in safe hands under Governor Mills, and we’re proud to be fighting alongside her.”
Governor Janet Mills said:
“Throughout my career, I have fought to expand access to reproductive health care and to protect reproductive freedoms. After a conservative majority of the Supreme Court launched an assault on these rights by wrongly striking down Roe v. Wade, I pledge that my veto pen will stand in the way of any effort to rollback, undermine, or outright eliminate access to safe and legal abortion in Maine. With so much at stake in this election, let me be clear: reproductive rights are not up for negotiation in Maine under my watch and they never will be.”
Governor Mills has been a bold champion in the fight for reproductive freedom, consistently fighting to protect and expand abortion access in Maine. In her first year as governor, Gov. Mills signed legislation to expand the number of medical professionals able to provide abortion care, increase privacy protections for abortion care providers, and mandate state and private insurance providers to include abortion care under their maternity care coverage. More recently, Governor Mills signed an executive order protecting access to reproductive health care services in Maine, including prohibiting state agencies from cooperating with another state’s investigation into a person, organization, or health care provider for delivering abortion care in Maine. Previously, Gov. Mills served as Maine’s attorney general, where she opposed the Trump administration’s rollback of contraception and supported a buffer zone around abortion clinics for patient and provider safety.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—ending the constitutional right to abortion and opening the door for extremist state lawmakers to put total bans on abortion in place. This decision is already having a devastating impact throughout the country as have begun enforcing extreme or total bans on abortion. The people hurt most by these bans and restrictions are those who already face barriers to accessing abortion care—including women; Black, Indigenous, and other people of color; those working to make ends meet; the LGBTQ+ community; immigrants; young people; those living in rural communities; and people with disabilities.
These endorsements come as NARAL Pro-Choice America is ramping up its work to elect candidates up and down the ballot during a critical moment in the fight for reproductive freedom. NARAL, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and EMILY’s List announced a partnership in May to collectively spend a historic $150 million on the 2022 midterms to elect reproductive freedom champions up and down the ballot across the country. Read more about NARAL’s endorsed candidates here.
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For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for every body. NARAL is powered by its 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.