ACLU Sues to Force Maine Taxpayers to Fund Abortions

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Feb 8, 2018   |   4:24PM   |   Augusta, Maine

The ACLU continued its legal challenge against Maine this month in an effort to force state taxpayers to fund abortions.

The pro-abortion legal group recently filed an appeal after a state superior court ruled against its lawsuit, Maine Public reports.

Filed in 2015 on behalf of Planned Parenthood and two other Maine abortion businesses, the lawsuit demands that women on the state Medicaid program, MaineCare, have their elective abortions paid for by taxpayers.

“Even though it will cover almost all other pregnancy-related care. We think that’s discriminatory, and we think that’s against the law,” said Zach Heiden, legal director for the ACLU.

The pro-abortion groups claim the ban on taxpayer funding of abortions in Maine “violates Maine law and the state constitution, which enumerates the rights to pursue happiness and equal protection under the law by only affecting the ability of low-income women to get an abortion and not those with private insurance.”

However, the argument has not succeeded thus far. According to the AP, the Cumberland County Superior Court ruled against the lawsuit, saying that federal law allows states to prohibit the use of taxpayer dollars for abortions.

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In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed in Harris v. McRae that states may prohibit taxpayer funding for abortions through Medicaid.

MaineCare does cover abortions in cases of rape, incest or risks to the life of the mother.

Polls consistently show that most Americans do not want their tax dollars to pay for abortions. A Marist poll found that more than two-thirds of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortions, including a majority of women and people who identify as pro-choice.

In October 2016, a Politico/Harvard University poll also found that just 36 percent of likely voters supported taxpayer funding for abortions, while 58 percent opposed it.

Americans understand that their tax dollars would be better spent helping struggling mothers and their families, not pushing them to abort their unborn babies.