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Lisa Margulies is vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund PAC.
In a state known for its peace and quiet, Mainers are facing a relentless amount of noise: political ads everywhere, all the time. The stakes are high, and our votes matter in high-profile races that will determine the national political landscape just as much as they matter in races getting less attention.
Every seat in the state Legislature is up for grabs, and while many of those contests aren’t making headlines, they are critical to protecting our rights. The buck stops in Augusta in ensuring Maine remains a safe harbor for access to reproductive health care.
Our freedoms here in Maine are not secure from election to election. Though we have strong state laws protecting our reproductive rights, our laws can change if state leaders choose to change them. Unlike states like Vermont, we have no state constitutional amendment protecting reproductive autonomy. And we don’t need to look far to understand how elections impact care, with the New Hampshire Executive Council voting just a few years ago to defund Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.
Along with 186 voting seats in the Maine legislature, the governor’s office is also up for grabs and the pro-reproductive rights majority in Augusta is at stake. In 2024, the Maine House majority was determined by only 60 votes across three districts — yes, 60 individuals making the decision to cast their ballot. Some races were decided by just a handful of votes. One race in Sanford was decided by just one, singular vote.
The threats are real. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles has said he’ll work with President Donald Trump to “defund abortion clinics” and that he opposes the state-level protections Maine lawmakers put in place after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal protections for abortion. Unenrolled candidate Rick Bennett claims to care, but his record — including calling to defund Planned Parenthood and opposing Mainers’ voting on a referendum to enshrine reproductive autonomy in the state constitution — shows us otherwise.
Every legislative session, lawmakers propose bills aimed at taking away our rights and access to essential care. Last session, proposals included creating barriers to essential medical care, requiring medical professionals to provide dangerous misinformation, and even repealing our state’s abortion laws full stop and potentially criminalizing patients and providers. These bills aren’t a fluke. In fact, the 2026 Maine Republican Party platform, like platforms from years before, opposes abortion.
But Mainers know better, and we don’t want politicians or political parties making personal private medical decisions for us. Each legislative session Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund has fought alongside dedicated Mainers to defeat these harmful proposals, and we are grateful to our champions at the statehouse who have worked tirelessly to protect our rights and access to care.
The bottom line is: With your vote in this election, you can have real impact on critical races in our state. Your vote, one singular vote, can determine the result of a competitive state legislative race. Showing up matters.
Luckily, there are lots of ways to vote on or before Nov. 3. You can register to vote in-person at your local town clerk’s office and cast your absentee ballot there before election day. Maine also offers same-day in-person voter registration through election day. You can find your polling place, sample ballot, and more at Maine’s voter information lookup service.
Need help understanding which candidates share your values? Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund PAC is proud to endorse Hannah Pingree for governor — the only candidate we can trust to protect our rights and access to care — and has also vetted and endorsed more than 100 candidates in Maine legislative races, all of whom you can find on our website.
We are committed to cutting through the noise and helping you find candidates that will fight for our rights. Your vote matters, and it could be your vote that determines the outcome of a critical race.