The measure is expected to draw fire from religious conservatives and most Republicans who opposed expanding abortion services.

A similar version of the legislation, offered by Mills when she was the state’s attorney general during the administration of Republican Gov. Paul LePage, failed to gain traction in the Legislature. But Mills, a Democrat, is backed by new Democratic majorities in both the state House and Senate.

The bill’s primary sponsor is House Speaker Sara Gideon, D-Freeport.

“Every woman in Maine should be able to access reproductive health care when and where she needs it, regardless of her zip code,” Mills said in a prepared statement. “Allowing advanced nurse practitioners and physician assistants to perform medication-administered abortions, which are already permitted in other states, will ensure Maine women, especially in rural areas of our state, can access reproductive health care services. It is time to remedy this inequity that negatively impacts too many Maine women.”

Gideon said the measure was especially important for women in rural parts of Maine.

“Women in rural Maine have been disproportionately harmed, where the sheer logistics of arranging for travel, taking time off work and securing child care create an often insurmountable barrier to accessing the full range of family planning services,” Gideon said, also in a prepared statement. “The time to move forward is now, Maine women should not have to wait any longer.”

Maine law now prohibits advanced practice clinicians, including nurse practitioners, nurse midwifes and physician assistants, from providing abortion care, although the law does not cite any medical justification. Currently there are three clinics in Maine where abortions are performed.

Several groups supportive of abortion rights, including the ACLU of Maine and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, said they welcomed the legislation and thanked Mills and Gideon for bringing it forward again.

“The (advanced practice clinician) ban makes it harder for my patients to access the care they need, is medically unnecessary, and contributes to abortion stigma,” said Alison Bates, a nurse practitioner with Planned Parenthood. “It does not protect patient health or safety and in fact harms patients by limiting access to time-sensitive medical care — care they may otherwise receive from their provider of choice, in their community of choice.”

Oamshri Amarasingham, the advocacy director for ACLU of Maine, said many Mainers already have limited access to health care services, and women should be able to get the care they want from providers they prefer in their own communities.

“Enough is enough,” Amarasingham said. “Limited transportation options, brutal winters, and a shortage of health care providers – Mainers face more than enough obstacles to accessing needed health care without having medically unjustified laws piled on top.”