Portland – The ACLU of Maine will present the 2016 Roger Baldwin Award to Wadsworth Women’s Health Center, Maine Family Planning and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, for their bravery in standing up for reproductive rights. The awards will be presented at the ACLU of Maine Annual Meeting on September 19 at 4:00 p.m. at the Viles Estate in Augusta.
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The honorees are the clients in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Maine seeking to restore abortion coverage to women who use MaineCare. Current Maine Department of Health and Human Services policy bans abortion coverage under the state’s public insurance program. Together, the three nonprofits provide comprehensive reproductive and sexual health care to 21,500 Mainers each year, more than half of them low income.
“Mabel Wadsworth, Maine Family Planning and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England are among those rare groups who exist for the sole purpose of helping people,” said Alison Beyea, executive director of the ACLU of Maine. “They are the ones on the front lines, fighting every day to provide care to those who need it – even in the face of unimaginable adversity. They give value to our work to preserve and strengthen reproductive rights. We are so grateful for the service of these wonderful organizations, and honored to call them our partners and friends.”
The Baldwin Award is presented annually to a group or activist that has made a distinguished contribution to the protection and promotion of civil liberties in Maine. The award is named for Roger Baldwin, an ardent activist for social justice who helped found the American Civil Liberties Union, and served as its Director until 1950.
More information about the lawsuit, Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center, et al. v. Mary Mayhew, is here.
