The subject is abortion.

The two Presidential candidates are quoted in an article headlined, Lost in Abortion Noise: Nuance, Politics Straddles 2 Extremes, but Americans Fall in Middle.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/15/us/politics/abortion-debate-pennsylvania.html

We have taken the lead on this issue in Maryland.

Bipartisan majorities in the General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 162, which wrote the holding of Roe v. Wade into state law.

That legislation was petitioned to referendum and approved by the voters, 62-38%, in 1992.

Under our law, a woman decides whether to bear a child before the fetus is viable.

After that, a woman can have an abortion only if the procedure is “necessary to protect the life or health of the mother” or “the fetus is affected by genetic defect or serious deformity or abnormality.”

What should we do now?

The votes are there to broaden the medical conditions where the State pays for abortions that are not funded by the federal government because of the Hyde Amendment.

We already pay for a limited number of abortions for health reasons under the Medicaid program.

However, I think our focus should be elsewhere.

We should increase state funding for preventive reproductive health care that would reduce the number of abortions and improve women’s health.

I’m already working on it.