The Maryland Senate passed a radical pro-abortion bill Tuesday that would expand the killing of unborn babies in abortions by encouraging more medical workers to become abortionists.
The state Senate voted 28-15 in favor of House Bill 937 and sent it to Gov. Larry Hogan for his signature. The state House passed the bill earlier this month.
The bill allows nurse practitioners, midwives and physician assistants to abort unborn babies. It also allocates $3.5 million taxpayer dollars to train medical workers to become abortionists and forces health insurance plans to cover elective abortions without co-pay.
State Sen. Delores G. Kelley, D-Baltimore County, who sponsored the bill, said there are not enough abortionists in the state, according to the AP.
But pro-life advocates and Republican leaders warned that the legislation would endanger women’s and unborn babies’ lives.
“This bill puts women’s lives at risk,” state Sen. Justin Ready, R-Carroll County, said on the Senate floor prior to the vote. “You can’t claim to care about women and their health if you’re opening up surgical abortions at late stages of pregnancy to non-physicians.”
ACTION ALERT: Contact Gov. Larry Hogan to urge him to veto the bill.
Ready criticized Democrat lawmakers for rejecting an amendment that would have required abortionists to offer follow-up care to women after their abortions and another that would have required medical care to be offered to viable, late-term babies who survive abortions.
“We’ve come far from the position of abortion being safe, legal and rare … to a grisly position … that any kind of restriction at any stage is wrong, and somehow we shouldn’t believe our lying eyes when technology shows us babies formed, hearts beating, brain waves,” Ready said. “The stated goal of proponents of the bill at the hearing talked in glowing terms about wanting more abortions.”
State Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, R-Somerset, also spoke out against the bill, saying many women suffer psychological trauma after an abortion, the Capital News Service reports.
“Twenty to 30 percent of post-abortive women suffer from serious prolonged negative psychological consequences,” Carozza told lawmakers.
It is not clear if the governor will sign the bill. Hogan is a Republican, but he is not pro-life.
Maryland Right to Life said the legislation will hurt mothers and unborn babies by eliminating one of the only abortion restrictions in the state.
“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.”
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 Gov. Larry Hogan to urge him to veto the bill.
