Maine has a bevy of new laws that touch upon controversial issues — such as abortion and guns — but also aim to address long-standing problems in housing and schools.
Hundreds of measures that passed the Legislature during the 2024 session became effective on Friday. It also marked the first day that funding became available for scores of initiatives that were contained in a supplemental budget that passed the Legislature largely along party lines.
While most of the measures attracted little attention in Augusta, other new laws that took effect on Friday sparked heated debate and partisan floor fights.
For instance, Maine has officially joined the list of states with so-called "shield laws" to protect medical professionals who provide reproductive and gender-affirming care to residents from states that restrict access to such care. Left-leaning states have adopted such shield laws in response to lawmaking in more conservative states that have banned or restricted women's access to abortion since 2022 and have limited access to care for transgendered individuals, especially minors.
Lisa Margulies, vice president of public affairs at Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund, said officials in more restrictive states have already targeted residents who go elsewhere for abortions or gender-affirming care. And some states have threatened to sue or prosecute the doctors who provide that care.
Margulies praised Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Janet Mills, also a Democrat, for pushing through Maine's shield law in response to what she calls "extremist" politicians and officials in other states.
"As an example, the attorney general of Texas recently served a Washington hospital with a demand for records related to transgender health care," Margulies said. "And even during the legislative process for this bill, opponents showed just how willing they were to try to reach in to our state and try to interfere with our rule of law."
Margulies is referring to a letter co-signed by 16 attorneys general from other states urging Maine lawmakers not to pass the shield bill. The attorneys general, who all hail from states with more restrictive access to abortion and/or gender-affirming care, had vowed in particular to fight a provision allowing Maine health care providers to counter-sue if they are targeted by out-of-state investigations.
Other opponents of the shield law argued that it could violate parental rights and lead to "trafficking" of transgender minors to Maine for care. But the new law does not change Maine's current age restrictions or parental consent requirements for minors.
Two other controversial bills deal with guns and were passed by lawmakers months after the mass shooting in Lewiston that killed 18 people and injured 13.
Maine residents will now have to wait 72 hours to take possession of a new gun under one of the new laws that took effect.
"Maine is making a monumental change towards preventing gun violence with the passage of this new law, the 72-hour waiting period, as well as the expansion of background checks," said Nacole Palmer, executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition. "This means that there are people whose lives will be saved both here in Maine and in states around the country."
Supporters say a 72-hour waiting period will deter impulsive suicides and homicides. Roughly 90% of gun-related deaths in Maine are suicides, according to statistics compiled by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
"And that means anything we can do to reduce suicides is going to have a major impact in reducing the overall gun deaths in Maine," Palmer said. "The 72-hour waiting period has been shown to be effective in the states where it has passed."
For the first time, private gun sellers will also have to run background checks on potential buyers if they advertised the gun online or in print. The measure is aimed at closing what supporters say is a loophole in Maine law that has enabled a huge, unregulated gun marketplace in Maine. Some private sale guns in Maine have been traced to crimes in other states, like Massachusetts and New York.
Maine's Democratic-controlled Legislature passed the gun bills this spring after intense debate. But opponents question their effectiveness and say neither measure would have prevented last October's mass shootings in Lewiston because the gunman legally purchased his weapons long before the incident after undergoing background checks.
Gun owners' rights groups have also vowed to challenge the 72-hour waiting period in court. They argue that it could shut down gun shows in Maine and will only harm law-abiding citizens seeking firearms for self defense.
Other laws that took effect on Friday would:
- Increase wages for ed techs in Maine schools to 125% of the state's minimum wage and increase wages for support staff to 115% of the minimum wage.
- Provides $18 million to a rent relief program run by MaineHousing that could help people facing eviction pay their rent.
- Strengthen the Maine Department of Labor's tools to order businesses to pay back-pay owed to workers but also potentially damages for missed wages.
- Allows the attorney general's office to seek block paramilitary training camps that are intended to cause civil disorder.
