Maryland Voters Will Decide on Abortion Constitutional Amendment

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland voters will decide next year whether to enshrine abortion rights in the Maryland Constitution, after the House of Delegates voted Thursday to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

The House voted 98-38 in favor of a bill that has already passed the state Senate by the three-fifths margin needed to bring the issue before voters in 2024. It would take a simple majority of voters to pass it.

In June, the US Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade of 1973, giving control over abortion to the states. Since then, states have been working to restrict or strengthen access to abortion.

Since November, three states have affirmed abortion protections in their constitutions, including California, Vermont and Michigan. Kentucky voters rejected a ballot measure intended to deny any constitutional protection for abortion.

Missouri voters could decide whether to restore abortion rights, if constitutional amendments make it to the 2024 ballot. The proposals would amend the state constitution to protect the right to abortion and pregnant patients, as well as access to birth control. Now, most abortions are banned in the state. There are exceptions for medical emergencies, but not for cases of rape or incest.

In Ohio, supporters of a proposal to enshrine the right to abortion in the Ohio Constitution They are collecting signatures phase to get more than 413,000 voters to put the issue on the fall ballot.

The right to abortion is already protected by Maryland law. The state passed legislation in 1991 to protect abortion rights if the Supreme Court allowed abortion to be restricted. That law was put on the ballot and voters approved the right in 1992 with 62% of the vote. Proponents argue that adding the protection to the state constitution would make it even more difficult for opponents to try to eliminate abortion rights in the future.

Registered democrats outnumber republicans 2-1 at Maryland.

A constitutional amendment in Maryland does not require the approval of the state’s governor, although Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, has expressed his support, as have other bills the General Assembly is promoting to protect abortion rights this year.

Another Maryland measure is designed to protect patients and providers of criminal, civil, and administrative sanctions related to abortion bans or restrictions in other states.

A seperation data privacy bill is intended to protect reproductive health insurance and medical records in electronic health information exchanges that can be shared quickly and widely across state lines.

Another measure would be insure public colleges and universities in Maryland they have a plan for student access near campuses to contraception, including emergency contraception and abortion pills.

Maryland lawmakers have said the state is already seeing an increase in patients from other states. A new abortion provider opens this year in western Maryland, just across the street from deeply conservative West Virginia, where state lawmakers recently passed a near-total ban on abortion.

The Maryland Women’s Health Center in Cumberland, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from West Virginia, will open its doors in June to provide abortions to patients throughout central Appalachia, a region that clinic operators they say it is an “abortion desert”.

Last year, Maryland lawmakers enacted a law about the then-governor. Larry Hogan’s veto to expand abortion access by ending the restriction that only doctors can perform abortions and requiring most insurance plans to cover abortion care at no cost. The law allowed nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and physician assistants to provide abortion training.

Moore, in one of his first acts as governor, announced in January that he was freeing up $3.5 million Expand abortion training in the state. Hogan, a Republican, refused to hand over the money while he was in office.