BALTIMORE — Legislation to expand access to abortions in Maryland and mandate that most health insurance plans cover the procedure cost-free for patients easily passed the House of Delegates on Friday, a step toward broadening access in Maryland even as the U.S. Supreme Court mulls allowing severe restrictions on abortion in other states.
Delegates also backed enshrining the right to abortion — as part of “the fundamental right to reproductive liberty” alongside contraception and prenatal care — in the state’s constitution, something that would require the approval of voters in November.
Maryland law has explicitly protected a woman’s right to obtain an abortion since 1992, when voters statewide approved a referendum on the issue by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. But abortion rights supporters have argued that the procedure remains too difficult to obtain for many women, rendering it a choice in name only, and that adding the right to the state constitution would safeguard against any future political efforts to curtail or restrict it.
