Two years ago, the ACLU of MAINE worked with coalition partners at Family Planning Association of Maine, Maine Women's Lobby, and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England in a failed legislative attempt to ensure that poor women in Maine have full access to abortion care. (MaineCare does not cover abortions.) Today's news is an important step forward for poor women in our nation's capital. Unfortunately, poor women here at home will have to wait until the Maine legislature acts, or Congress repeals the Hyde Amendment.
House Lifts 20-Year Ban On DC Abortion Funding - WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives late Thursday passed the Financial Services appropriations bill lifting a 20-year old ban on the use of locally generated tax dollars for abortions in the District of Columbia. The American Civil Liberties Union has long pushed for an end to this restriction, arguing that the District of Columbia ought to have the right, like other states, to use its own local, non-federal revenue to provide abortion care to its low-income residents. [ACLU Online Newsroom]