Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan today vetoed a bill to spend $3.5 million in taxpayer dollars to train non-doctors to kill babies in abortions. Hogan is pro-abortion, so the move is a bit of a surprise, but the governor apparently believes only physicians should be able to kill unborn children.
A new Maryland law will allow nurses and other non-physicians to kill babies in abortions and the state legislature approved funding training to kill children for when the law takes effect this summer.
In vetoing that funding bill, Hogan understands that abortions are dangerous for women and even more dangerous for their lives and health when a non-physician is the one doing the procedure.
Michael Ricci, the spokesman, said in a statement that the Republican governor “firmly believes, as stated in his veto of this partisan measure, that non-licensed physicians should not be performing these medical procedures.”
“Suddenly releasing taxpayer dollars for this purpose would run counter to those concerns about setting back the standards for women’s health,” Ricci wrote in an email.
Comptroller Peter Franchot, the state’s tax collector who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, slammed Hogan and demanded that he release the funds to hospitals to train on abortions.
Hogan also vetoed the bill to allow non-doctors to do abortions but the legislature eventually overrode that veto.
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“The bill risks lowering the high standard of reproductive health care services received by women in Maryland,” the Republican governor said in a statement. “These procedures are complex and can, and often do, result in significant medical complications that require the attention of a licensed physician.”
Responding to claims about the bill being “progress” for women, Hogan said he vetoed the bill because the opposite is true.
“The only impact that this bill would have on women’s reproductive rights would be to set back standards for women’s health care and safety,” he said.
Despite Hogan’s warnings, the Democrat-controlled state legislature overrode his veto, voting 90-46 in the state House and 29-15 in the state Senate.
Republicans said the legislation would put women’s and unborn babies’ lives at risk and make Maryland a “destination” state for abortions.
“I am not proud of Maryland becoming known as an abortion destination,” said state Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, R-Eastern Shore, according to the Sun.
House Minority Leader Haven Shoemaker, R-Carroll, also slammed the bill prior to the vote, calling it the “most radical expansion of abortion in Maryland’s history in a state that already has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the country,” Maryland Matters reports.
Earlier, Republican lawmakers also criticized Democrats for rejecting amendments to the bill that would have required abortionists to offer follow-up care to women after their abortions and required medical care to be offered to viable, late-term babies who survive abortions.
The Maryland Catholic Conference, Maryland Right to Life and other pro-life organizations opposed the bill and urged lawmakers to protect unborn babies and mothers.
“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,” Maryland Right to Life 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 unborn babies to be aborted 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.
