Police were called Saturday to investigate a pro-abortion-rights message left in chalk on a sidewalk outside the Maine home of Sen. Susan Collins, one of two prominent Republican senators who support abortion rights.
“Susie, please, Mainers want WHPA ——> vote yes, clean up your mess,” protesters wrote in soluble chalk outside the senator’s house in Bangor, Maine, according to a report from the police department.
WHPA stands for Women’s Health Protection Act, the bill Democratic senators are pushing through Congress that would codify Roe v. Wade into law. Collins said last Thursday that she wouldn’t support it.
Per the police report, officers responded to a call Saturday night to investigate the message. In an email to The Washington Post, a Bangor police spokesman said that the message “wasn’t threatening” and that “no crime was committed.”
The message, the spokesman said, was washed away by the city’s public works department. Officers have not yet identified the individuals responsible.
A Collins spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a Post request for comment.
“We are grateful to the Bangor police officers and the City public works employee who responded to the defacement of public property in front of our home,” Collins told the Bangor News.
Collins and fellow Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who also supports abortion rights, are the focus of a push by abortion rights activists to get their support for the bill that would secure the access to abortion rights nationally. But the two are unlikely to support the Democratic-led measure — they voted against an earlier version of the legislation in February.
Instead, the two offered a competing bill, the Reproductive Choice Act, that is much more narrowly drawn than the Democratic bill and does not have any other co-sponsors.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki, asked about the incident at her Tuesday briefing, said that peaceful protests are welcome but should not turn violent toward people or property.
“Even as passions are high,” Psaki said. “Even as people are fearful, even as people are scared and frustrated, which is understandable, we should not — no one should resort to violence, of course, nor threats nor intimidation nor vandalism. That those are not effective means.”
