Maryland Senate leaders signaled plans to advance one pro-abortion bill and reject another Friday as pro-life advocates across the state voice strong opposition to lawmakers’ plans to expand abortions.
The AP reports the state Senate did not advance state House Bill 1171, which would create a right to abortion in the Maryland Constitution.
Sponsored by state House Speaker Adrienne Jones, the bill did pass the House, but a spokesperson for Senate President Bill Ferguson said he does not plan to move forward with it, according to Maryland Matters.
Ferguson did, however, support a second pro-abortion bill (Senate Bill 890) that would allow nurse practitioners, midwives and physician assistants to abort unborn babies. It also would allocate $3.5 million taxpayer dollars to train medical students to become abortionists. State Sen. Delores G. Kelley, D-Baltimore County, and state Del. Ariana B. Kelly, D-Montgomery, are the lead sponsors.
Maryland Right to Life, which opposes the bill, warned that it will put more mothers’ and unborn babies’ lives at risk.
“One of the few health and safety protections for pregnant women in the Maryland Code is the legal requirement that only a licensed physician may perform abortions,” the organization said. “But the abortion industry is asking the state to authorize them to put profits over pregnant patients and allow practically anyone to ‘perform’ surgical abortions and ‘provide’ dangerous chemical abortion pills.”
On Friday, Republican state lawmakers spoke out against the abortion expansion. According to Maryland Matters, they introduced nine amendments to the bill, including one that would have required parental consent for underage girls, but Democrats defeated them all. Democrats have a strong majority in the state legislature.
“This is not a debate about abortion being legal,” said state Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, R-Lower Shore. “This is about deep oppositions about moving Maryland’s already liberal abortion laws to the extremes.”
State Senate leaders plan to hold a final vote on the bill this week.
Maryland allows abortions for basically any reason up to birth. The state does not require abortion facilities to report their abortion numbers, but Maryland Right to Life estimates nearly 30,000 unborn babies are aborted there every year.
ACTION ALERT: Contact Maryland Senate lawmakers. Maryland Right to Life also encourages pro-life advocates to attend a Senate hearing at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday in the Miller Senate Office Building, 11 Bladen St., Annapolis, to oppose state House Bill 1171. Pro-life advocates are encouraged to wear blue in solidarity for life.
