BALTIMORE — Lawmakers in the Maryland House of Delegates heard politically and emotionally charged testimony Tuesday after Speaker Adrienne A. Jones reintroduced a bill to protect abortion access in Maryland’s constitution.
“If we want to ensure reproductive freedom for generations to come, we must act definitively, we must act explicitly, and a constitutional amendment is our strongest way to do that,” Michelle Siri, executive director of the Women’s Law Center of Maryland, told the House Health and Government Operations Committee. “It is not enough to be just ‘pro-choice’ in Maryland anymore.”
Under the legislation, Marylanders would be able to vote in 2024 to enshrine a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” including the ability to “prevent, continue or end one’s own pregnancy,” without interference from the state. Though the word “abortion” isn’t in the bill, its protection is implied under the right to end a pregnancy.
