Today, Paul LePage downplayed the importance of Mainers’ reproductive rights, saying that “I don’t have time for abortion” and “abortion affects few Mainers.”

The remark comes as thousands of Mainers have been rallying in favor of abortion rights, and polling shows that protections for abortion rights are overwhelmingly popular in the state. LePage has been deflecting on what he plans to do about abortion now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, instead pointing to his eight-year record as governor where he vehemently fought against accessibility to reproductive health care and said that “we should not have abortion.”

“Paul LePage could not make it any more obvious that he does not care about the reproductive freedoms of Maine people,” said Bev Uhlenhake, Vice Chair of the Maine Democratic Party. “When he was governor, he fought against abortion rights in our state. Now with Roe overturned and a procession of abortion opponents behind him, we know he won’t turn down the chance to ban abortion. We cannot let someone so wildly out of touch with our state on reproductive rights back in the Blaine House.”

Now that Roe has been overturned, millions of people across the country in Republican controlled states have had their reproductive rights torn away. LePage’s 2022 campaign is supported by a number of people and organizations, like the Christian Civic LeagueNebraska Governor and RGA Chair Pete Ricketts, and the Maine GOP, who want to do the same in Maine.