By Michael Shepherd - June 23, 2023
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Democratic wrangling and a visceral Republican response marked an arduous abortion vote. It was a staggering night in the State House on Thursday, as Democrats in the Maine House of Representatives struggled over a period of six hours to advance a key abortion-rights bill that looked for months like it was sailing to passage.

They ultimately did so by a slim margin. Rep. Ben Collings, D-Portland, could have defeated the measure by siding with Republicans in a roll-call vote that was held open for more than a half-hour as leaders frantically counted votes. The vote landed at 74-72, prompting outrage from the losing side.

House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, slammed his chair down in the corner of the chamber, took a few steps toward the back of the room, returned to his seat and composed himself for several seconds before moving to adjourn, the first of many Republican procedural moves that worked to stretch business out nearly three hours to 1:30 a.m.

"This bill has already torn us apart," he told House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, from the floor around midnight. "It has not just torn both sides of the aisle apart, but it has torn your caucus apart."

This was a reference to the heavy wrangling on the Democratic side. The chamber began debating the bill around 4 p.m. They abruptly broke just over an hour later amid deep uncertainty that they did not have the votes to pass the bill, which would allow doctors to perform abortion they deem necessary past Maine's current viability cutoff around 24 weeks.

Mills backed the bill in January, forcing a major confrontation with the anti-abortion movement here. In May, hundreds of opponents of the bill, along with a smaller number of abortion-rights advocates, filled the State House for a hearing that ran 19 hours. But it was Democrats who were skeptical of the expansion who were at the center of things on Thursday.

Chief among them was Collings, who introduced an amendment that scrambled things in the afternoon. After voting with his party on the measure, Democrats voted down his attempt to offer up that change. Before the vote, there were only seven Democrats who refused to co-sponsor the bill. In the end, five Democrats voted against it, which was all the party could spare at the time.

The atmosphere at the back of the House chamber was tense. On the Republican side, members vented about colleagues who were absent, huddled to discuss motions that could gum things up and assailed Democrats.

“You familiar with squid poop at the bottom of the Mariana Trench?” Rep. Michael Lemelin, R-Chelsea, asked a group of aides. “This is lower than that.”

As business stretched on, members of both parties got tired. Rep. Gary Drinkwater, R-Milford, urged the sides to give up the fight for the night and return on Thursday. That message was endorsed by Rep. Jane Pringle, D-Windham, and it eventually took hold.
 

“Vote after vote after vote after vote,” Rep. Mark Worth, D-Ellsworth, told a Capitol Police officer within earshot of a reporter. “The numbers aren’t going to change.”

This arduous experience could have major implications for House business. It angered Republicans whom Talbot Ross needs to pass her key tribal-rights bill over Mills' objections. That task looks harder now. Moderate Democrats were also put in uncomfortable positions throughout the night. The State House is an intensely personal place, and these wounds looked deep.