Commentary: 48 years after Roe, we’ll keep working for reproductive freedom Planned Parenthood will strive to defeat attempts in the Maine Legislature to take away care or shame abortion patients. By Nicole CleggSpecial to the Press Herald Share When the COVID-19 pandemic reached Maine last spring, we knew Planned Parenthood of Northern New England had an important role to play in maintaining time-sensitive and urgent care for our patients and alleviating the burden for providers testing and treating COVID-19 patients. It was critical that we meet the needs of our communities. For many patients, Planned Parenthood is their only source of health care. The unfortunate reality is the pandemic has made existing barriers to care worse for many of the communities we serve. This is especially true for people of color, LGBTQ people, people who live in rural areas, people struggling financially and people who are uninsured, as well as for our staff, who had to rapidly identify new ways to deliver care safely.