Gov. Mills vows to protect reproductive rights in Maine
PORTLAND (WGME) -- Governor Janet Mills says regardless of what the Supreme Court does, she'll fight to protect reproductive rights in Maine.
Mills calls Justice Samuel Alito's language in a leaked draft "extreme and extraordinary."
She says the draft, if it becomes a ruling, not only threatens the independence of women, but their health as well.
The governor said in a statement Tuesday morning that "I do not consider the rights of women to be dispensable."
She says she's already taken steps as governor to protect reproductive rights in statute in Maine and expand the scope of practice, making reproductive health care more accessible to women in rural areas.
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"We can't go backward on this right,” Mills said. “For Justice Alito and his followers to suggest there's no right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution, that threatens more than just the right to reproductive health, it threatens all kinds of rights to privacy, including the right to access birth control itself, men or women, the right to your own personal care, those are very serious threats to very serious constitutional rights."
The governor says if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, she pledges access to abortion will be safe and legal in Maine as long as she's governor.