By Michael Shepherd - Jan. 19, 2023
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📷 Demonstrators protest outside the federal courthouse in Portland on May 3, 2022, against an anticipated U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

Good morning from Augusta.

What we're watching today

Here's a look at the complex public opinion around abortions late in pregnancy. Gov. Janet Mills faced fallout on Wednesday for her support earlier this week for a series of bills that would further expand abortion access in Maine, led by a change that would allow abortions after fetal viability if a doctor deems them medically necessary.

Maine's Catholic bishop assailed the governor and legislative Democrats for that proposed change, calling it "radical and extreme" in a rare condemnation of a type the state has not seen since the battle over same-sex marriage more than a decade ago. Like the rest of Americans, Catholics have long been divided on abortion despite the church's strident opposition to it.

That underscores a complex public opinion landscape on the emotional topic. Maine has always polled as an abortion-rights state, with an often-cited 2014 poll from the Pew Research Center finding 64 percent support here for abortion rights in all or most circumstances. Only five states measured higher, putting Maine in the top-tier of those most supportive of abortion rights.

The later in a pregnancy you go, the more popular support erodes for abortion. While a national Associated Press poll in 2021 found 61 percent support for abortion rights in the first trimester, 65 percent thought they should be banned or limited in the second and 80 percent thought they should be in the third.

But it is worth noting the vast majority of abortions — 93 percent — came in the first trimester nationally in 2018. Despite abortion being legal in Maine now up until roughly 24 weeks into a pregnancy, there were no abortions here in week 20 or later in 2021, according to state data.

So this makes it likely that we are discussing outlying situations in which fetal abnormalities are discovered late in pregnancies. Mills cited the story of a Maine woman who went to Colorado for an abortion after finding her fetus had a condition that would lead it to die shortly after being born. For now, Maine only allows post-viability abortions if the life or health of the mother is in danger.

Post-viability abortions are deeply unpopular, generally speaking. Only 17 percent of Americans and 20 percent of Mainers back them, according to a 2022 survey from the COVID States Project. But support jumps back up when Americans are asked about abortion in cases of fetal abnormalities or birth defects, with 47 percent of those nationally and 56 percent of Mainers backing it at that point.

The counterargument from the Catholic bishop and legislative Republicans has focused on the broad idea of changing Maine's viability standard, which was cemented in a 1993 law preserving abortion access. But loosening abortion restrictions to account for abnormalities has won over Republicans in other states, including in New Hampshire, where a fatal anomaly exception was added last year to the state's ban on abortions after 24 weeks.

Mills and Maine Democrats are using a different standard. They have the votes to pass the changes without a single Republican vote, but the public debate around them will be framed by the dueling focuses of the parties. We have seen a strong preview of it this week.

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News and notes

📷 Crime scene tape surrounds Geneva Presbyterian Church on May 17, 2022, in Laguna Woods, California, two days after a gunman opened fire during a luncheon at the church, killing one and injuring five other members of a Taiwanese congregation that met there. (AP photo by Ashley Landis)

🔒 Federal officials call a Maine meeting on securing places of worship.

◉ Next Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice, along with the state's emergency management agency, is leading a public meeting in Augusta on securing churches and other places of worship. RSVP here.

◉ The federal effort comes on the heels of churches across the country increasing security after the FBI reported hate crime incidents increased by 34.8 percent between 2014 and 2018 at places of worship.

📃 A ex-defense contractor who figured into Maine politics is in trouble again.

◉ Martin Kao, the former CEO of Navatek, a company that has since changed names and designs Navy ships, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in his home state of Hawaii on a federal charge of mortgage fraud, according to Honolulu Civil Beat, a nonprofit news agency that has dogged his political giving.

◉ Kao has been in the Maine and national news since 2020, when he was accused of defrauding a small business loan program championed by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. He was one of three people indicted for a "straw donor" scheme that funneled contributions to a pro-Collins political committee during her reelection bid in 2020. He has pleaded guilty in those cases.

◉ Neither Collins nor her staff have been accused of wrongdoing in these cases. Her office has said neither the senator nor her campaign had knowledge of misconduct by Kao until it was reported and that nobody in the office had discussed the Paycheck Protection Program with him.

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What we're reading

🔑 South Portland's approach to rent control is a lighter one than its neighbor's.

📙 Hermon might spend $5,000 to survey residents on a library book policy.

🎈Bangor students will help NASA track air pollution.

🪵 This new wood product may help an Aroostook County mill reopen.

🐝 Maine bees are dying at an alarming rate, and things will get worse.

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