The Press Herald’s Jan. 18 editorial, “Our View: Maine’s doctor-only policy unneeded for abortion pill” (Page A6), is very misleading, and it appears to be intentional on the writer’s part.
In the headline, and throughout the editorial, it is stated that the abortion “service” being discussed and promoted in Attorney General Janet Mills’ bill, L.D. 1763, is simply “allowing advanced-practice clinicians to supervise” a woman as she takes a pill that will medically induce an abortion.
It is stated that the medically induced abortion is not a surgical procedure. So, what could possibly be the problem? The problem is that when you take the time to read the proposed bill, it says nothing at all about limiting the type of abortion that the “health care provider” would be able to do if the bill passes.
Throughout the bill, in every paragraph, the words “attending physician” are crossed out and the words “health care professional” are written in. “Health care professional” is defined as including “physician assistant” or an “advanced-practice registered nurse.” The next-to-last sentence of the editorial is “nurse practitioners … are more than capable of delivering this service.”
The writer of the editorial seems certain that most voters would be in favor of Mills’ bill and it would not be a negative in her run for governor. That’s possible, but the majority of Mainers might not understand the truth of what the bill includes and your editorial does not give them the facts.
The bill that she is promoting would allow the full range of abortions, including the surgical removal of fetuses, to be done by physician assistants and others who are not physicians. It would be appropriate for you to print something more accurate about what L.D. 1763 is about.
Candace Muehleisen
Cumberland
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