Augusta lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee brought a proposed concept draft concerning “reproductive rights” to the forefront Tuesday, discussing the possibility of referring the bill to another committee, as the intended scope of the proposal appears to have changed since it was first brought forward last year.
Although proposed text for LD 335 is still not yet available, sponsor Rep. Amy Kuhn (D-Falmouth) explained during Tuesday’s work session that the bill has essentially become a “funding bill for reproductive and sexual health providers in Maine.”
Originally, the concept draft was referred to the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee due to their jurisdiction over “abortion regulation and reproductive rights.”
The Health and Human Services Committee — the committee to which the bill is now expected to be referred — is responsible for the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), public health, MaineCare, and other related areas.
Rep. Kuhn explained that the House Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee agreed with her suggestion that they would be the more appropriate body to eventually evaluate the proposal, rather than the Judiciary Committee.
Before a vote was taken Tuesday, there was some discussion among committee members regarding whether or not a public hearing needed to be held before they could vote to re-refer the proposal.
A look at the rules quickly clarified, however, that re-referral can take place at any point in the committee process, whether or not a public hearing has been held. In fact, it was pointed out that it is often more efficient for a public hearing to be held only by the committee that will ultimately be responsible for handling the legislation.
It was also noted during this discussion that when it comes to concept drafts, language for the proposed bill must now be released reasonably in advance of a public hearing.
This requirement was first put into place around this time last year following a great deal of debate among lawmakers concerning concept drafts after the public hearing for a highly controversial bill was held almost immediately after language was made public, giving Mainers little to no lead time to understand the proposal.
That bill, which ultimately became law, sought to institute legal protections for those seeking or providing “gender-affirming health care” and “reproductive health care services” in Maine, two hot-button issues which had previously drawn massive crowds of protesters to the State House.
Despite the significance of the issues at hand, the text of the legislation — and the sponsor’s intentions — remained unavailable and unknown until just before the public hearing because of its origins as a concept draft.
Several months later, lawmakers on the Joint Rules Committee considered the possibility of banning concept drafts altogether, but after the suggestion was rejected by the Democratic majority along party lines, the committee agreed instead to implement the advanced notice requirement.
Rep. Rachel A. Henderson (R-Rumford) was the only member of the Judiciary Committee who did not vote in support of re-referring LD 335.
The Health and Human Services Committee may begin work on LD 335 once lawmakers accept the Judiciary Committee’s majority report and formally refer the matter to the alternate committee.
