AUGUSTA, Maine — Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed a invoice into legislation Wednesday that expands entry to abortions later in being pregnant in Maine, becoming a member of a half-dozen states that depart it to docs and sufferers to make the choice with out restrictions on timing.

The new legislation permits abortions at any time if deemed medically vital by a health care provider, making the legislation one of many nation’s least restrictive. The outdated legislation banned abortions after a fetus turns into viable outdoors the womb, at roughly 24 weeks, however allowed an exception if the affected person’s life is in danger.

Mills stated throughout her reelection marketing campaign that the outdated legislation didn’t should be modified. But she reversed course after studying of a Maine veterinarian who needed to journey to Colorado for an abortion after studying at week 32 of her being pregnant that her unborn son had a deadly situation that may not enable him to outlive.

The veterinarian, Dana Peirce, was current on the invoice signing, standing behind the lectern alongside medical suppliers in white jackets, lawmakers and a clergy member.

Passage of the invoice was thought of a foregone conclusion within the state Legislature the place Democrats managed each chambers, and there have been sufficient co-sponsors to make sure passage.

But the invoice nonetheless generated emotional debate.

Critics stated the legislation’s language was broader than vital if the objective was merely to permit abortions in cases of a deadly fetal anomaly later in a being pregnant. They stated it might result in a dramatic enhance in post-viability abortions, and that it places an excessive amount of religion in docs to make a willpower.

Abortions later in being pregnant are uncommon. Nationally, about 1% occur after 21 weeks, in accordance with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tallies, which wouldn't have full information from each state.

Nationally, many Republican-controlled states are doing simply the other from what Maine did by both banning or proscribing abortions because the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a affected person’s constitutional proper to an abortion, leaving it as much as particular person states to manage the process.

Most Democratic-controlled states have taken steps to guard abortion entry, although none has gone so far as Maine because the Supreme Court ruling final yr.

Beside Maine, six states depart the choice to get an abortion to docs and their sufferers, with out restrictions. They are Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Vermont, plus Washington, D.C.

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Associated Press author Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

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