Pro-life group names first spokeswoman

AUGUSTA — The Maine Right to Life Committee announced Thursday it was hiring Jill Rabine of Portland, who holds the title of Mrs. Maine for 1989-90, as its first public-relations spokeswoman, fund-raiser and lobbyist.

Chris Coughlan of the MRLC said, “We are interested in cutting through the image that people have built up about us.”

Coughlan told a handful of reporters at the State House that the MRLC was debating what strategy it should use in the next legislative session on the issues it considers important — abortion, euthanasia and infanticide.

“There has been a lot of talk about a referendum, possibly on parental consent,” said Coughlan. “We are still planning our strategy and there’s nothing concrete at this point.”

In 1989, the MRLC waged a long fight in the Legislature trying to get a law passed that would have banned teen abortions without the consent of the teen-agers’ parents.

After much debate, a compromise was passed requiring teen-agers to get parental or judicial consent for abortions, but allowing them to have abortions without such consent if they got appropriate counseling.

The anti-abortion forces in Maine were not satisfied with the 1989 law.

Rabine, the group’s new spokeswoman, had been a Republican candidate for the state Senate in Portland before dropping out of the race after this year’s primary. She said she would devote her time to working for the MRLC and would consider a legislative run in another year.

Rabine said the MRLC was not a radical group, but needed to educate people about its work and also about “the medical facts of conception, fetology and birth.”

“The Right to Life Committee cares for not only the unborn child, but also the mother, and is willing to work with many pregnancy crisis centers throughout the state to bring about whatever is best for both mother and child,” said Rabine.

“We are sincere, caring people who simply care about the dignity of all human life, including the unborn,” Rabine said.

Asked about the group’s goals, Rabine said, “Ultimately, on the national level, we would like to see Roe vs. Wade (the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion) overturned, but on the state level, we just start with one baby at a time.”