Left-leaning Democrats in the Maine Legislature are quite enjoying their new-found power and quickly imposing their extreme social agenda on the rest of us.

Last week, House Democrats approved a bill to spend taxpayer money on elective abortions. The 79-63 House vote on LD 820 was split along party lines, with small-government/pro-life Republicans doing their best to stem the cultural decay that is allowing women to end their pregnancies for any reason at all. The Maine Senate now takes up the bill.

Abortion is a touchy subject, and for years pro-lifers and pro-choicers have argued over it. While the federal government prohibits the use of federal tax dollars for abortions, state governments are allowed to subsidize the cost of some abortion procedures through Medicaid.

Maine subsidizes abortion services to the poor through Medicaid, but only in certain circumstances: when the life of the mother is imperiled or when rape has resulted in pregnancy. This makes sense even to pro-lifers, because abortions can be expensive and poor people deserve necessary medical attention.

But Maine Democrats are disturbing the established peace with their latest push for taxpayer-funded, non-medically necessary abortions, a concept known as subsidized abortion-on-demand. LD 820, sponsored by Rep. Joyce McCreight, D-Harpswell, would require MaineCare to pay for elective abortions.

MaineCare would continue to provide taxpayer-funded abortions for cases of rape and when the mother’s health is jeopardized, but McCreight’s bill would also have taxpayers pay for abortions for any other reason. This is wrong on many levels; Democrats who push for this show their extremist tendencies.

No woman, rich or poor, should be allowed to end her viable baby’s life for no other reason than she’s overwhelmed and doesn’t want to bring a life into the world. Abortion on demand for any reason is wrong. While it’s regrettable for government to allow individuals to use their own money for such elective procedures, it’s even worse to force taxpayers, many of whom abhor the concept of elective abortion, to pay for them.

The killing of any human being is a serious thing. As a society, we struggle with the concept of capital punishment. We struggle with wartime killing, allowing for conscientious objection. We also struggle with the concept of euthanasia. Death is finality and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

LD 820 takes death lightly. The Democrats who support this bill are taking death lightly. Writing legislation that allows a mother to end her unborn baby’s life with no better excuse than it’s inconvenient and unwanted should be disconcerting to us all.

The other disturbing aspect of this legislation is that Maine Dems don’t care a lick what their constituents think about abortion. Yes, Democrats won the recent election, but they are acting like they just don’t care what a significant minority, or perhaps the majority, think about abortion on demand.

Even many pro-choice folks who want to ensure safe access to abortion don’t support abortion whenever the mother feels like having one. They want to make abortion safe, but rare. Democrats pushing such divisive legislation show they care little for the unborn or the conscientious-objecting taxpayers who don’t want their money going toward such uses.

John Balentine, a former managing editor for Sun Media Group, lives in Windham.