Maine’s Republican Senator has split with Democrats as they mount an effort to challenge restrictive abortion laws in light of one that recently went into effect in Texas.
According to the Portland Press Herald, U.S. Senator Susan Collins said Tuesday that she opposes a push by Democrats to bar states from enacting restrictions on abortion through fetal viability.
The Texas abortion law bans abortions once cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo. That typically occurs about six weeks into pregnancy, making it the most restrictive abortion law in the country.
Collins says she supports the aim of the Democrat bill, which is to codify Roe v. Wade, but says it goes too far by interfering with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and forcing healthcare professionals who object to abortions to perform them.
She says she also found parts of the Democrat bill language “extreme.”
Collins says she is working with colleagues on alternative legislation which she says would “truly codify Roe.”
