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AUGUSTA, Maine — Today, about two dozen other bills that have been worked on by state lawmakers last session officially became law. These laws range from health care to election security.
The bills that officially became law on Monday are as follows:
One of the bigger bills that were passed into law is LD 1899, which aims at protecting patients from harassment at abortion facilities.
Nicole Clegg, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, said she and her team already work hard to do that, but laws like this take another step.
“We certainly have protesters outside our health center we have you know safety mitigation programs in place. We have a greeter program. We do everything we can to reduce the impact, but I don’t want to pretend that walking through a line of protesters doesn’t have an impact on people who are coming here for care,” Clegg said.
The Good Samaritan Law is another high-profile law. This protects anyone who is assisting at the scene of an overdose from arrest.
Members of Maine’s recovery community worked on this bill with state lawmakers and say what they came up with could save lives.
“I’m really excited that everybody was able to come to the table and really negotiate a good solid piece of legislation. When I look at the governor’s amendment that she first proposed and I look at our amendment that we first proposed I’m actually more happy with the amendment that we got to,” Courtney Allen from Maine Recovery Advocacy Project said.
Maine is now the first state in the nation to ban the spreading of sludge linked to contamination from chemicals, known as PFAS, thanks to LD 1911. This is something farmers across the state have been working towards for years.
Sports betting is also now legal in Maine. Online sports betting will go exclusively to Maine’s Native American tribes, while Maine’s casinos and off-track betting facilities will be eligible to apply for licenses.
But, Maine Gambling Control Unit Executive Director Milton Champion says it could take until January 2024 to get rules sorted out.
“Maine is not Las Vegas, Maine is not Atlantic City, but that doesn’t make it lesser of a regulatory responsibility on my part, and so I’m going to make sure we get things done correctly,” Milton Champion said.
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