Maine’s Democrat-controlled legislature has approved a measure that will create a $12M fund for the benefit of Maine’s abortion clinic operators, and the lead candidates to land the contract for managing the fund happen to be top donors to Maine Democrats.
The legislation, titled “An Act to Improve Women’s Health and Economic Security by Funding Family Planning Services,” was introduced by Sen. Teresa Pierce (D-Cumberland) and cosponsored by a coalition of Democratic lawmakers, including Senate President Mattie Daughtry (D-Cumberland) and House Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford).
Under the bill, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services would be required to establish a dedicated fund — the “Fund to Maintain Access to Statewide Family Planning Services” — and distribute $6.18 million annually (or more than $12M over the biennium) to a single grantee. That grantee would oversee the coordination and management of statewide abortion services.
The award will be distributed through a supposedly competitive bidding process; however, Maine’s abortion market is dominated by two big players with close ties to Democratic politicians.
Abortion clinic operators have found a financial windfall in the Mills Administration and Maine Democrats, thanks to policies that expand and subsidize both abortion and transgender procedures, in which some abortion clinics have begun dabbling.
Abortion rates remained fairly even in Maine since from 2017 to 2022, at roughly 2,000 a year, according to stats published by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
In 2023, the same year Maine legalized late-term abortions under LD 1619, the number of recorded abortions surged to 2,502, per DHHS.
At the same time, Maine’s top abortion clinic operators — the Family Planning Association of Maine (FPAM) and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPONNE) — have seen their taxpayer-funded revenue streams swell under Mills.
MaineCare payment records show that the two abortion clinic operators billed taxpayers for $8.5M and $4.7M, respectively, from 2019 to 2024.
In FPAM’s case, their MaineCare receipts have increased from $776,265 in 2019 to $1.9M in 2024, an increase that began when Mills signed emergency legislation adding abortion to the list of services covered by MaineCare.
It’s not immediately clear why Maine’s largest abortion providers need another taxpayer-funded source of revenue, considering their revenues appear to be at or near all time highs.
According to Form 990 tax documents filed by the organizations, FPAM has seen its revenue climb exponentially over the last decade, from $5.3 million in 2011 to $14.2M in 2023. Likewise, PPONNE has grown its revenue from $18.8M in 2011 to $31.8M in 2023. Per tax documents, FPAM received $5,836,191 in government grants in 2023, while PPONNE took in $5,424,610 from taxpayer-funded programs.
[RELATED: A Look At Planned Parenthood’s Influence in Maine…]
The $12 million dollar abortion slush fund LD 143 will create is a handsome payoff for the amount of money abortion clinics spent helping elected Gov. Mills in 2022
Maine campaign finance records show that PPONNE’s PAC spent $836,059 on independent expenditures to help Mills in the 2022 gubernatorial race and another $304k helping Democrats hold the State House in 2024.
In addition to the political support, the abortion clinic operators have other ties to the Mills Administration. The governor’s chief of staff, Jeremy Kennedy, served as the director of advocacy for PPONNE prior to taking a position under Mills.
