Just days after Paul LePage claimed that Governor Janet Mills’ Executive Order to protect Mainers seeking abortions and abortion health care providers was “not worth the paper it’s written on,” LePage ally Florida Governor Ron DeSantis proved him wrong.
Yesterday, DeSantis suspended a top elected prosecutor in Florida for his refusal to criminally prosecute abortion patients or providers. DeSantis’ action is not out of the norm. Already, a cadre of other Republican governors, like Greg Abbott in Texas and Pete Ricketts in Nebraska, are pushing to criminalize providers as part of their extreme efforts to ban abortion.
DeSantis’ dystopian move proves exactly why Governor Mills’ Executive Order is needed to protect abortion-seekers and providers in Maine—and proves why LePage’s opposition to the executive order shows he doesn’t care about the threat these attacks on abortion rights pose to Maine people.
LePage, who has a staunch anti-choice record and once said, “We should not have abortion,” and “Let’s do it” to striking down Roe v. Wade, has repeatedly dismissed the importance of abortion as health care, saying “I don’t have time for abortion” and “abortion affects few Mainers.”
Despite claiming that he would not initiate any abortion restrictions himself, LePage has refused multiple times to answer whether he would sign any bill that he reaches his desk restricting or rolling back access to abortion to as few as six weeks, responding, “I don’t know,” and, “If it’s tied to science, then I will give it a serious look.”
But a look at who he wants to associate with as governor gives an indication of where his head is at.
LePage is already working hard to closely align himself with these extremist governors, recently flying to Florida—where he became a resident and re-registered to vote after serving as governor—to raise money with DeSantis. LePage also accepted an endorsement from Ricketts, who supports a full abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest, and has called both Abbott and DeSantis the “gold standard” for governors.
Governor Mills has been unequivocal that she will stand in the way of any effort to restrict abortion access in Maine.
“While Paul LePage dismisses the importance of Mainers’ right to seek an abortion, his Republican allies—who he has praised and raised money with—are proving exactly why it is so important that Governor Mills is reelected,” said Misha Linnehan, spokesperson for the Maine Democratic Party. “While LePage dances around questions about this anti-abortion agenda, Governor Mills has committed to stand in the way of the extreme and harmful efforts by other governors to prosecute abortion-seekers and providers. But we all know the truth: LePage is as anti-choice as the extreme governors he praises and would eviscerate Mainers’ reproductive rights if given the chance.”