Maine lawmakers have advanced and appear to have the votes to pass a bill that would remove gestational limits on abortion when a licensed physician determines the procedure is necessary, expanding access in the state. Currently, Maine restricts abortion after fetal viability, or about 24 weeks’ gestation, unless the health or life of the pregnant person is at risk.
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Gov. Janet Mills (D) proposed the bill, Legislative Document 1619, which would update the state’s Reproductive Privacy Act to give doctors more control over when an abortion is deemed appropriate. The bill also removes criminal penalties for providers and for people who help someone self-manage an abortion.
Currently, seven states allow medical providers to offer abortion throughout pregnancy: Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington D.C. (which isn’t technically a state but absolutely should be). The House passed LD 1619 on Thursday night by a vote of 74 to 72. If the Senate passes the measure, Maine would become the first state to repeal its gestational limit in the wake of the Dobbs decision.
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People need abortions later in pregnancy for many reasons, including new diagnoses, late recognition of pregnancy, and barriers to getting care when they wanted it. In the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe, providers are seeing evenmore people seeking abortions later in pregnancy.
Mills has cited as her inspiration for the bill the story of Dana Peirce, a woman who learned at 32 weeks pregnant that her fetus wasn’t viable and had to travel to Colorado for an abortion.
Expanding access to abortion is a good thing on its own, but it’s especially interesting to consider the bill in the context of one U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R), the least popular senator in the country. Collins, who claims to support abortion rights, was a deciding vote to confirm both Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, who voted to overturn Roe. (Collins was a no on Amy Coney Barrett, likely knowing Republicans didn’t need her vote, which occurred mere days before her 2020 re-election.) She even said she thought people were being alarmist about Kavanaugh’s crystal clear record on abortion. When Roe fell four years later, the Maine senator claimed she’d been duped by Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.
Collins bears a lot of responsibility for the fall of Roe, and now her home state is on the verge of expanding access that’s all the more crucial in the wake of the 14 state bans—and counting—that she wrought.
CAMDEN — We knew all along how excellent The Place bakery is, at the top of the hill in Camden. That is why folks line up outside waiting for the doors to open.
But the New York Times also figured out how special The Place is, and in a Dec. 24 article, 22 of the Best Bakeries Across the U.S. Right Now,included the Camden bakery, lauding its, “ethereally flaky croissant dough (made with local flour and butter)….”
The Place, tucked off of Route 1 at 117 Elm Street, Camden, has plenty more going for it, thanks to its owners, Chelsea Kravitz and Chris Dawson, who are community-minded and always giving. They opened their enterprise in Summer 2023, and were instantly appreciated.
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Mainers consider the housing crisis to be a bigger problem than any of the others facing our state.
The lack of housing inventory at all income levels, which was caused by historic underproduction and higher migration rates, has sent home prices soaring in recent years. It is harming Maine businesses and shutting many out of the housing market entirely.
Average home values and median home prices increased more in Maine in the last year than they did nationally. Other northeastern states have seen bigger hikes. But other metrics show that the crisis is virtually as bad here than anywhere else nearby, especially when you account for the fact that incomes are lower in Maine than in any other state in the region.
Here are three datapoints putting Maine’s housing crisis into perspective.
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Sale prices are growing nearly as fast here as anywhere in New England.
Median home sale prices are growing nearly as fast in Maine as they are in any other northeastern state. Regionally, they’ve increased by anywhere from 5.9 to 11.3 percent in the last year. Maine is riding the middle at 8.2 percent, higher than any New England state besides Rhode Island, according to Redfin.
To purchase the median home for sale in Maine right now, you need an income of just under $112,000 a year, assuming no debts and a $20,000 down payment, according to Zillow’s affordability calculator. The median household income here is a little under $72,000, according to census data. That shows how out of whack the housing economy is for the average person.
Home values in Portland are growing as fast as they are in Boston.
Over the past year, there have been signs that Portland’s red-hot pandemic housing market is slowing down. But that’s all relative. Home values here still grew by 3.8 percent over the past year as of November, which was only slightly below Boston at 4 percent, according to Zillow.
But when stacked up against the other largest cities in each New England state, Portland is second only to Burlington in seeing the lowest increase in home values in the past year. Providence, Rhode Island, has seen the largest hike, followed by Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Both those cities are facing major shortages and price increases, although they are still far cheaper markets to buy in than Portland. The typical home value in Providence is just over $400,000, which is roughly in line with Maine’s statewide average.
Maine’s rental crisis is worse than in this nearby Canadian city.
The southern Quebec city of Sherbrooke — only 40 miles from Maine’s western border — is in the midst of an “unprecedented housing crisis,” according to a local news outlet.
The city had a vacancy rate of only about 1 percent in October and 25 percent of households are spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent. Here in Maine, that latter figure is far worse.
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Nearly half of all renters in both Bangor and the Portland-South Portland area are spending at least 30 percent of their income on housing, data from Harvard University found. Roughly 45 percent of renting households in those areas pay over 30 percent of their income on housing, and 24 percent pay more than 50 percent.
As in Sherbrooke, officials here attribute the crisis to a low vacancy rate, a lack of affordable housing supply and the high cost to construct new units. The reasons for the crisis are clear everywhere, but the solutions are coming slowly.
State police are searching for a 41-year-old man they say strangled his pregnant partner.
Dusty O’Brien is wanted for domestic violence aggravated assault, reckless conduct and violating conditions of release, state police said Wednesday. He is out on bail for a separate domestic violence arrest, according to police.
Police say O’Brien strangled his pregnant partner on Tuesday and fled his residence before police arrived.
He is known to frequent the Porter area and other parts of Oxford County.
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The Wrap: Portland on Tap returns; a potluck with a twist
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