Collins calls police after someone chalks abortion rights message on her sidewalk

Maine authorities said that Sen. Susan Collins (R) called police after individuals drew an abortion rights message on her sidewalk at her Bangor residence. 

According to a Bangor Police Department (BPD) report, Collins called authorities to her residence on Saturday to complain about a message from an unknown individual being written in chalk on her sidewalk. 

The message read, “Susie, please, Mainers want WHPA —–> vote yes, clean up your mess.” 

WHPA refers to the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made access to abortion a federally protected right.

BPD spokesman Wade Betters told the Bangor Daily News that the city’s Department of Public Works responded to the BPD’s call and removed the message from Collins’s sidewalk by Monday afternoon. 

“The message was not overtly threatening,” Betters told the newspaper. 

In a statement to The Hill, Collins’s office said the senator previously received threatening phone calls and letters from residents, adding that the Capitol Police had advised her to notify local authorities about incidents surrounding her residence. 

“Because Senator Collins periodically gets threatening letters and phone calls, we have been advised by Capitol Police to notify the local police department when there is activity directed at her around her home,” Collins’s office said in a statement. 

Collins said last week that the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion from Justice Samuel Alito, published by Politico, that would overturn the landmark 1973 decision was “completely inconsistent” with what Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch had told her in prior conservations. 

The Hill has reached out to the Bangor Police Department for comment and more information.