Maine
Maine clinics see high demand for birth control

Calls started coming into Maine Family Planning clinics on November 5, and they haven’t stopped. In the wake of Trump’s re-election, Mainers across the state have been making appointments to get IUDs and implants, forms of long-lasting birth control, out of concern that the new administration could limit access to contraceptives.
“It’s been non-stop,” says Shasta Newenheim, regional manager for Maine Family Planning, a nonprofit with eighteen clinics across the state. “We’re seeing a lot of people who are choosing to either get (implants and IUDs) replaced early. Or, if it was something they thought they wanted in the past, they definitely want it now.”
Maine Family Planning is not the only organization fielding an influx of calls. Providers that have reported increased contraception requests include Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, the Mabel Wadsworth Center, York Hospital and MaineHealth Obstetrics and Gynecology in Biddeford.
Among the providers that responded to questions from The Maine Monitor, only Northern Light Health reported no change in contraception requests. But an obstetrics and gynecology provider affiliated with Northern Light Health, who requested anonymity to protect her job, took issue with this characterization and told The Monitor that she has seen requests for long-acting reversible contraception and sterilization increase dramatically since the election.
To Aspen Ruhlin, who works at the nonprofit Mabel Wadsworth Center in Bangor, the impetus behind the increase is clear: “If you’re on the pill, there’s always the risk that you run out and can’t get more. But if you have something in your uterus or arm that lasts for years, it’s a lot harder to lose access to that.”
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, which operates in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, saw its average weekly requests for long-acting reversible contraceptives more than double after the election, according to a November 21 press release. At the organization’s Maine health centers, appointments grew from a weekly average of 26 appointments to 48 in the week after the election.
“Our patients are scared,” Nicole Clegg, interim-CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, said in an interview eight days after the election. “We’ve already experienced a spike in patients seeking long-acting reversible contraception and emergency contraception.”
“We saw this last time too,” she said.
Maine Family Planning also saw an influx of patient requests following Trump’s 2016 election and after the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade — in line with national trends.
A 2024 study published in the journal Jama Network Open that analyzed a national data set of medical and prescription claims found downward trends in most contraception services since 2019, but found sharp, temporary increases in all contraception services after the 2022 decision.
“We are in a place that we’ve already been before; we know what we’re up against,” Newenheim said. “This is just another signal that there’s a real movement to take away (reproductive) rights. There’s always the question of, where is it going to end? Our patients feel that too.”
Newenheim said many patients are motivated by a fear that the Trump administration could bring changes that influence insurance coverage of birth control.
During his first term, Trump expanded the types of employers that could deny contraception coverage on moral or religious grounds, weakening the federal contraceptive coverage guarantee in the Affordable Care Act, which mandates that most private insurance plans in the U.S. cover contraception without out-of-pocket costs for patients.
Maine is one of 31 states that require private insurers to cover contraception, and one of eighteen states that prohibit cost-sharing, according to data compiled by KFF. MaineCare’s Limited Family Planning Benefit covers contraception — including pills, IUDs, and implants — for individuals at or below an annual income of $31,476.
Trump’s administration also enacted policies that stripped funding from reproductive rights organizations that provide contraception and abortion care, including a “gag rule” that prevented clinics receiving Title X funding from referring patients to an abortion provider.
Clegg, of Planned Parenthood, said it’s unclear what will happen to federal funding after Trump takes office on Jan. 20, noting that “the crystal ball is cloudy.” But many Mainers are not waiting to find out.
In addition to requests for IUDs and implants, Dr. Ashley Jennings, a gynecologist at York Hospital, cited increased requests for tubal ligations.
Planned Parenthood and Mabel Wadsworth Center described increased requests for vasectomies, and Planned Parenthood and Maine Family Planning described a jump in requests for gender-affirming care.
Mabel Wadsworth Center has seen a number of current patients seek gender-affirming surgery sooner than they’d originally planned.
“I have spoken to patients currently receiving gender-affirming health care who are in tears because they fear it’s going to be taken away,” said Newenheim. “This isn’t birth control. This is their day-to-day; this is their identity.”
Despite widespread concern, providers expressed their commitment to patient care.
“We refuse to be fearful,” says Newenheim. “We are dedicated to the mission of not giving up and ensuring these basic human rights are extended to our patients.”

Maine
Maine electricity supply cost may rise in addition to rate increase sought by CMP

Most Maine homes and small businesses can expect the cost of their electricity supply to go up in January.
Nine out of 10 Maine homes receive their electricity supply through the state-run standard offer program. They’re likely to see an estimated 15% or so jump in rates, according to an analysis done for The Maine Monitor by Competitive Energy Services, a Portland consulting and energy procurement firm.
The projected increase could boost average supply rates for a typical home by roughly $8 a month in 2026.
The supply rate hike would be separate from whatever happens with a recent, controversial request by Central Maine Power to increase its distribution rates to upgrade its aging network of wires, poles and substations. That proposal, now at the Public Utilities Commission, has been met with strong opposition from inflation-weary customers, triggering a record 617 public comments by early October.
“Affordability is becoming a big issue, a big political issue,” said Andrew Price, Competitive Energy Services’ president and CEO. “There’s definitely outrage out there with CMP’s proposed distribution increases. The supply hike is going to feel like there’s some piling on.”
Rising electric rates are becoming a national issue, too, with the prices consumers pay up 13% since 2022 and projected to rise again next year, according to the federal Energy Information Administration, a non-partisan branch of the Department of Energy. In some regions, the growth is tied to building more power plants to meet demand at new data centers.
But Maine’s expected supply cost increase has nothing to do with artificial intelligence or CMP’s case. Instead, it’s tied largely to wholesale natural gas prices that are on track to keep rising in 2026.
Prices are up in part because the United States, which has become the world’s largest gas exporter, is projected to double the volume of liquefied natural gas shipped overseas by 2030, according to federal estimates. LNG exports are part of President Donald Trump’s goal of unleashing a “Golden Era of American Energy Dominance,” growing the country’s gross domestic product and adding jobs.
But higher natural gas prices are bad for energy consumers in New England. That’s because half the region’s power is generated by plants that burn natural gas. The cost of gas in turn sets what’s called the marginal price for what other forms of generation are paid for supplying New England’s power grid 24/7.
Wholesale gas prices are being watched closely now because the Maine PUC is planning next month to review the annual bids it receives from generators offering the standard supply service in 2026. There’s no way to know the precise outcome until the days the bids are accepted, but market conditions are pointing to some increase, according to Philip Bartlett, who chairs the PUC.
“It’s fair to say that electricity prices track natural gas prices,” he said. “So if we see changes in natural gas prices, they will be reflected in electricity costs.”
Electricity suppliers study cost projections on energy futures markets, and if they see gas prices rising next year, Bartlett explained, they hedge that risk by charging more for generation contracts.
“Any upward swing in gas prices is bad news for electricity prices,” he said.
Supply rates have been volatile
Mainers have received their electricity supply from an unregulated energy market for 25 years, although some residents still think their utilities are involved because the charges are included in their monthly bills. Due largely to natural gas, supply costs have become the most volatile and largest component of an electric bill.
And they’ve been on a roller coaster in recent years, ranging from roughly 6 cents per kilowatt-hour to 16 cents. They plunged during the pandemic in 2020, soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine roiled global energy markets, and have eased over the past two years.
Today, according to the latest figures collected by Maine’s Department of Energy Resources, standard offer supply rates are roughly 11 cents per kWh for CMP and Versant Power’s Bangor Hydro District.
Maine’s total electric rates grew at the third-fastest rate in the country between 2014 and 2024, according to an analysis conducted last April by The Monitor. An overly generous state solar reimbursement policy and the costs of repairing the delivery grid following severe storms were contributors, but natural gas prices were the leading factor, the analysis found.
New England is especially vulnerable to price swings because the region’s constrained gas pipeline system doesn’t have enough capacity on the coldest winter days, requiring injections of more-costly LNG to meet demand.
The role of LNG
But LNG now is playing a role in pushing up electricity prices elsewhere in the country. As aging coal plants have retired, natural gas has become America’s leading fuel for electricity generation, meeting 42% of the need. At the same time, a growing share of American gas is being shipped overseas from new export terminals.
It’s headed primarily to Europe, for cutting dependence on Russian energy. And it’s going to Asia, to meet growing energy needs and to blunt tariff pressures from the Trump administration. Recent data from the Institute for Energy Economics and Finance Analysis, which promotes sustainable energy, found that, for the first time, the volume of gas being exported was more than half the amount being used at American power plants.
Although gas production and prices are always changing, the overall trend is pushing up the price of gas burned in America. The federal Energy Information Administration’s October outlook projected that a key market price used to forecast costs would rise from $2.20 per million BTU last year to $4.10 in January.
The idea that exports are pushing up gas prices isn’t universally embraced. The American Petroleum Institute, for instance, recently highlighted a report from S&P Global that found LNG exports had no major impact on domestic residential gas prices, although that report didn’t directly address the influence on electricity rates.
Campaigning last year, Trump said he intended to slash energy and electricity prices in half within 12 to 18 months. And while gasoline prices have eased a bit this year due to lower crude oil costs, electricity generation has gone in the other direction.
“We’re not on track for any Trump policies to cut electric rates for Maine ratepayers,” said Heather Sanborn, Maine’s public advocate for utility customers.
Sanborn said her office hears daily from Mainers concerned about affordable power but that the state has limited tools to address supply costs. One strategy, endorsed by her office and AARP Maine, is to explore different methods for the PUC to procure standard offer contracts.
A bill passed this year in the Maine Legislature directs the PUC to look into soliciting bids more than once a year and for varying lengths of time, in an effort to smooth the volatility in rates.
Asked about the effort, Bartlett said his agency contracted for a procurement study that recommended minor adjustments but “nothing earthshattering” that would significantly lower supply costs for Mainers. A report to the Legislature is due in January.
One strategy that could help over time, both Sanborn and Bartlett noted, is to build more cost-effective renewable energy capacity in the region. Solar, wind and battery storage deployed at certain hours can help dampen the volatility of natural gas, they said. Solar, for instance, can reduce the time gas plants need to run when demand is high, such as on a summer afternoon when air conditioners are cranking.
But federal support for clean energy has largely evaporated, especially for solar and wind, with the Trump administration doing what it can to hamstring renewable projects in favor of fossil fuel generation.
“To the extent we’re not building grid-scale storage or offshore wind, we are allowing natural gas to be the marginal cost setter in our region,” Sanborn said.
This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from The Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here.
Maine
Maine Monitor’s Rose Lundy named Maine’s Journalist of the Year

A trio of Maine Monitor journalists were heralded with notable awards Saturday night at the Maine Press Association’s annual fall conference and awards banquet.
Rose Lundy, a senior public health reporter at The Monitor, was announced as Maine’s Journalist of the Year for her in-depth reporting over the years on Maine’s aging population. This marks the second time in the past four years that a Maine Monitor reporter was named the state’s journalist of the year.
As part of her COVID-19 coverage, Lundy began identifying gaps in Maine’s health care infrastructure, particularly for Maine’s aging population. In the years since, Lundy has carved out a niche reporting on the lack of quality aging care available in a state that is home to the oldest population in the country.
She devoted 18 months as a ProPublica Local Reporting Fellow to investigate Maine’s residential care facilities, carefully combing through hundreds of pages of monitoring and investigation reports, being dogged in her pursuit of the story and exceedingly careful in her analysis. She knocked on doors, visited facilities and spoke to neighbors.
The investigation uncovered that Maine rarely sanctions residential care facilities even after severe abuse or neglect incidents, and Maine’s health department rarely investigates when residents wander away from their care facilities.
Following the investigation’s publication, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to provide its first major update to assisted living and residential care regulations in more than 15 years. (Lawmakers later replaced the proposed measure instead with reporting requirements and a stakeholder study group.)
Maine Monitor editor Kate Cough was named the inaugural recipient of the MPA’s Mentor of the Year award for how she, as The Monitor’s editor, has amplified opportunities for emerging journalists, including six who have completed internships or fellowships directly under her guidance.
As part of The Monitor’s mission, the newsroom takes seriously its role in training and mentoring early career investigative journalists. As Cough put it in a letter to members earlier this year: “One of the pleasures of being editor of The Monitor is being able to offer intrepid young reporters a way into the field. The Monitor has always created these kinds of opportunities, but we’re doing even more now, once again bucking a trend.”
In addition to her duties as The Monitor’s editor, Cough has generously carved out time to mentor high school students in Mount Desert Island and has spent two semesters advising a Wabanaki history and culture class at the University of New England on its journalism projects.
Kristian Moravec, an education and workforce development reporter for The Monitor, was recognized with the Bob Drake Young Writer’s Award, an accolade presented to a journalist with fewer than three years of full-time experience.
Moravec, while at the Times Record, broke the news about the malfunction of a fire suppression system that discharged 1,600 gallons of firefighting foam concentrate containing forever chemicals at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. The incident spurred dozens of follow-up stories.
For The Monitor, at the time of her nomination in early July, Moravec had covered stories such as the implications of Maine’s fight with the Trump administration over Title IX, rural communities exploring withdrawals from their school district and what the future holds for Maine’s heat pump workforce.
The Monitor also received first place recognitions for Digital General Excellence and for usage of Maine’s Freedom of Access Act for Rose Lundy’s investigation into residential care facility residents wandering away from their facilities and Alexa Foust’s reporting on safety violations at child care facilities and reimbursement delays by DHHS to child care providers who accept children in foster care.
In addition to these accolades, 11 newsroom contributors collectively received 15 accolades for work produced between April 2024 and March 2025. The Monitor competed alongside daily news outlets including the Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald, Sun Journal, Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel and Times Record.
The newsroom has now earned 221 accolades from the Maine Press Association since it began participating in the MPA competition in 2015.
First Place
Education Story: Child care providers cited for safety violations by Alexa Foust and Kate Hapgood
Environmental Story: How one Maine town is prepping for its next disaster by Emmett Gartner
News Story: Child care providers cited for safety violations by Alexa Foust and Kate Hapgood
Coverage of Minority Community Issues: ‘Historically left out,’ a Wabanaki organization forges its own approach to addiction treatment by Emily Bader
News Video: The eclipse chasers by Roger McCord
Features/Lifestyle Video: A backstage look at a thriving Biddeford community theater by Roger McCord
News Story Headline: Gulf of Maine lobsters are experiencing a housing crisis by Kate Cough
Second Place
Environmental Story: Community solar is booming, but who owns the projects? by Murray Carpenter
News Story: Maritime officials fear ‘catastrophic’ outcome if mariner shortage worsens by Jacqueline Weaver
Continuing Story: Court system troubles (five stories on indigent defense, public defender’s offices, child removal cases delayed by a lack of attorneys and Sixth Amendment violation decisions) by Josh Keefe
Outdoors Story: Seal Island sees record number of breeding puffins by Derrick Z. Jackson
Self-Promotion: Celebrating 15 years of in-depth and investigative nonpartisan reporting from the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting by George Harvey, Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, Pat Richardson, Kate Cough, Stephanie McFeeters and Ashley Carter
Third Place
Health Story: Independent pharmacies are closing. Pharmacy benefit managers may be to blame. by Emily Bader
Education Story: Schools confront unique challenges in ridding their water of ‘forever chemicals’ by Emmett Gartner
Food Story/Feature: UMaine potato breed edges out longtime favorites by John O’Meara
Maine
5 things to think about as you age in Maine

WHERE TO LIVE
Deciding where to live as we age can be pretty complicated, especially in Maine where so many people live in rural areas, said Jess Maurer, executive director of the Maine Council on Aging.
While moving into a senior living community might be a good option for those who can afford it, many other folks will choose to or need to stay in their homes.
There are many types of senior communities and care facilities in Maine. They range from nursing homes or memory care facilities, to assisted living centers where some level of help is provided, to retirement communities geared toward independent living. Some communities offer independent, assisted living and nursing care on the same campus.
Staying in one’s own home and community can often be better for an older person but might require some renovations to make the house more accessible, Maurer said, and that can come at a cost, too. Some of the things people might consider doing now, to slowly age in place at home, include: installing flush thresholds throughout the home, installing a curbless shower or walk-in tub, adding handrails to all indoor and outdoor stairways, adding grab bars in the bathroom and replacing standard toilets with high seat models.
Maurer said that if someone is willing and able to relocate, it could make sense to find housing in a town center where it would be easy to walk to stores, entertainment, churches and places to socialize and get exercise.
HOW TO GET AROUND
While not everyone will face major health problems as they age, everyone’s eyesight at some point worsens, Maurer said. That means you’ll need to decide when it might no longer be safe for you to drive at night, or at all.
AARP offers an online driver safety course designed to help you qualify for insurance discounts. But it’s also meant to make people aware of the challenges of driving as they age, including the effects of medication on driving and how to compensate for age-related challenges.
In Maine, drivers over 65 have to get their license renewed every four years instead of every six, according to the Maine Department of the Secretary of State website. Drivers over 62 are required to get an eye exam every time they renew their license.
WHEN TO ASK FOR HELP
For people who have stopped or cut back on driving and want to stay in their homes, there are volunteer transportation programs operating in all 16 of Maine’s counties. Some programs have age limits, or limit destinations to medical appointments or grocery stores. Most are free. To find a program in your area and more specific information, check out the list on the Maine Council on Aging website.
MEDICAL CARE
Barbara Schlichtman, chair of the trusts and estate department at the Perkins Thompson law firm, recommends people have several legal documents in place as they get older.
She encourages people to sign a financial power of attorney over to someone they trust, and create an advanced health directive and sign a HIPPA authorization. Those three things will help ensure that someone else can make decisions for you if you’re not able to, can talk to your doctors and that your end-of-life wishes are known, she said.
Most of these require a visit to a lawyer, but the Maine Hospital Association offers a free Maine Health Care Advance Directive form on its website.
WILLS AND TRUSTS
Schlichtman says that dying without a will or a trust to specify how your assets should be divided and distributed can create legal complications for your family and friends. Even if you think you don’t own much, you probably should have a will or a trust, she said. Schlichtman said that while a will is simpler and less expensive, a trust provides more privacy.
Our Aging in Maine series explores ways to prepare for retirement, navigate the challenges of growing older and deepen community connections. More stories will publish throughout October, and all articles will run in a special print section of the Maine Sunday Telegram on Oct. 19.
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