2024 Maryland abortion referendum

The 2024 Maryland abortion referendum is a voter referendum to amend the Constitution of Maryland in order to codify the right to reproductive care in Maryland.

Ballot measure
The ballot measure reads as follows: "Question ___ Constitutional Amendment"

"The proposed amendment confirms an individual's fundamental right to an individual's own reproductive liberty and provides the State may not, directly or indirectly, deny, burden, or abridge the right unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means."

The choices read as follows:

"For the Constitutional Amendment Against the Constitutional Amendment"

History
In 1992, Maryland voters approved Question 6, which upheld a state law to codify Roe v. Wade and guaranteed the right to an abortion, with 62 percent of voters approving the measure and 38 percent opposed.

In August 2018, Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates Michael E. Busch endorsed efforts to codify the right to an abortion into the state constitution, citing fears that the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn its ruling in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which held that the U.S. Constitution protected a woman's right to have an abortion. Republican Governor Larry Hogan, who personally opposes abortion, expressed support for the measure but also questioned if a constitutional amendment to codify abortion protections was necessary. During the 2019 legislative session, Busch introduced legislation to create a 2020 referendum on enshrining abortion protects into the state constitution, but he withdrew it early into the session after Senate President Thomas V. Miller Jr. said he was reluctant to move it forward following protests against late-term abortion bills in New York and Virginia.

In May 2019, following the election of Adrienne A. Jones as House Speaker and after the Alabama General Assembly passed the Human Life Protection Act, Jones said she would continue Busch's efforts to enshrine abortion protection into the state constitution. As the Supreme Court began considering Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022, she introduced legislation to create a referendum on codifying abortion rights, which passed the Maryland House of Delegates by a 93–42 vote, but the bill died in the Maryland Senate after Senate President Bill Ferguson declined to put it up for a vote. The legislature also passed the Abortion Care Access Act, which provided $3.5 million toward clinical training for reproductive services, which became law after lawmakers overrode Governor Hogan's veto on the bill.

In June 2022, after the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs and overturned Roe and Casey, Jones committed to reintroducing the bill during the 2023 legislative session. The court's ruling also made relevant the issue of abortion in the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election, with all Democratic candidates promising to support Jones' measure; Republican candidate Kelly Schulz said that she was personally pro-life, but would not change "current Maryland law" toward abortion if elected governor, while her challenger, far-right state delegate Dan Cox, celebrated the Dobbs decision and vowed to end taxpayer funding for abortions as governor.

During the 2023 legislative session, Jones again introduced legislation to enshrine abortion protections into the state constitution, which passed and was signed into law by Governor Wes Moore along with a package of bills to protect patients who come to Maryland seeking abortion rights from out-of-state criminal prosecution.

House vote
The amendment was approved by the House on March 10, 2023, with 99 yeas, 37 nays, and 4 abstentions. Before the vote, Republicans unsuccessfully sought to amend the bill, with state delegate William J. Wivell introducing two amendments to give constitutional protections to the "preborn" and another replacing the phrase "reproductive freedom" with "abortion", and state delegate April Fleming Miller introducing an amendment replacing the word "person" with "woman"; all three amendments were defeated in party-line votes.

Senate vote
The amendment was approved by the Senate on March 31, 2023, with 33 yeas and 14 nays. Republican state senator Bryan Simonaire introduced an amendment to ban abortions after fetal viability, which failed by a vote of 13-33, and another amendment to the Senate crossfile version of the bill that would exclude gender-affirming surgery for minors without parental consent under the bill's definition of reproductive freedom, which was rejected by a vote of 14-32.

Campaign
The Right to Reproductive Freedom amendment is supported by Freedom in Reproduction — Maryland, which is made up of leaders from organizations including Planned Parenthood Maryland, the Baltimore Abortion Fund, and the Women's Law Center of Maryland. It is opposed by Health Not Harm MD, which is chaired by Deborah Brocato, a lobbyist for Maryland Right to Life. The amendment's opponents have claimed that its passage would allow children to receive gender-affirming care without their parent's consent; supporters, including former Maryland First Lady Katie O'Malley, have called this a misinterpretation of the amendment's language, saying that it would only apply to issues like abortion, birth control, and In vitro fertilisation.