The protections in Maryland law for women seeking an abortion or other reproductive health care are in jeopardy.
I testified today on my bill to protect women women and their health care providers from the long arm of liability under the anti-choice laws of Texas and other states.
My remarks begin at 1:21.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_GHOKsUnW8
After the General Assembly passed the bill that made Roe v. Wade’s legal standard the law of Maryland, a referendum followed. 62% voted Yes.
This week, we announced a legislative agenda to protect the women who need reproductive health care, as well as the people who provide that care.
The legislation I am sponsoring would enable a woman to keep private data associated with her treatment.
Why do we need such a bill?
The laws of Texas and other states put a woman and her care providers at risk of criminal prosecution or civil action.
Denying access to this data reduces the risk of people being hauled into court.
“We believe that most Marylanders would prefer a middle course on this issue,” the House Republican Caucus responded in a statement.
As noted above, a clear majority of Maryland voters agreed with the action we took in 1992.
In no small measure because of the anti-choice laws passed by other states, I believe the voters also agree with the course we are taking now.
That can include bipartisan efforts to address the needs of newborns and their families.
See In Post-Roe World, These Conservatives Embrace a New Kind of Welfare https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/10/us/conservatives-child-care-benefits-roe-wade.html
“It’s very sad.”
\ That was the response of my niece, Rachel.
She was the first person I reached out to this morning after learning that the Supreme Court had overruled Roe v. Wade.
I first discussed abortion with her when she was a student at Boston University.
Now she’s the mother of two girls.
America will be different for them, even if they remain in California.
Women there, as in Maryland, will still be able to decide when or if they want to have children,
Both states have passed laws adopting the principle of Roe: the state does not restrict a woman’s choice until her fetus is viable – capable of sustained survival outside the womb.
Anticipating today’s bad decision, this year’s General Assembly passed legislation broadening access to reproductive health care for women of lesser means.
There’s still work to be done.
The Texas anti-abortion law authorizes lawsuits against anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion.
One of the issues my colleagues and I are already working on for next session is how to prevent people from suing a Maryland resident under this law. .
When Roe was decided in 1973, I learned about it on the CBS Evening News in my grandmother’s hotel room. She was in New York for the night, and I was a law student.
Rachel had not been born then, but she worked the polls in 1992 when our legislation adopting Roe was approved by the voters, 62%-38%.
I think Grandma would be proud of both of us.
At this year’s General Assembly session, as the Supreme Court considered the fate of reproductive rights, I was a leader in expanding access to safe abortions. Additional crime-fighting resources will be provided in 41st District neighborhoods.
Senator Jill Carter, Delegates Dalya Attar, Tony Branch, and myself obtained construction funds for the Ambassador Theatre; Enoch Pratt Library Park branch in Park Heights; the intersection at Northern Parkway and Falls Road; Cross Country Elementry/Middle School; Ahavas Chaim; Allendale Recreation Center; and Hillside Park in Roland Park.
As a legislator, my policy and moral judgment is that abortion is a medical and moral decision for a woman to make in consultation with her physician and any others that she chooses. The voters of Maryland agreed in 1992, approving by a 62-38% margin the law that protects a woman’s right to choose.
Unlike other states, which are restricting legal and safe abortions, this year’s General Assembly broadened access to the procedure, reducing the medical risk to a woman.
After a triple homicide, I joined my 41st District colleagues in working to increase police presence in Howard Park. With more funding for police in the Governor’s budget, we will secure this protection in more neighborhoods. We have also reduced the hours of operation of problem liquor stores.
A person who carries a gun will use it. That’s the lesson I learned from the acquittal of 18-year old Kyle Rittenhouse.
Under Maryland law, individuals seeking to carry, wear, or transport a handgun must apply for a permit from the Maryland State Police and renew it annually. Appeals are now heard by administrative law judges, who already decide appeals from decisions by several state agencies. I played a key role in the passage of this legislation in 2019.
However, our system is jeopardized by a Supreme Court case where a similar New York law is expected to be found in violation of the 2nd Amendment. I will work with Attorney General Brian Frosh to determine how Maryland can protect us from handguns after this case is decided.
It was my idea for the Maryland Stadium Authority to evaluate whether Pimlico could remain the home of the Preakness. In May 2016, that study concluded that a rebuilt facility could host a Triple Crown race. I will continue to work with the communities surrounding the race track, the horse racing industry, and my legislative colleagues to make this site a major asset for the Park Heights community and the Baltimore region.
At this session, the General Assembly made it clear that design, architecture, engineering, and permitting for this redevelopment are to begin by September 1. We also appropriated $10 million dollars to begin the work at Old Hilltop. The Preakness will continue to be run at Pimlico while construction is underway.
In his first year in office, Governor Hogan withdrew state funding for the Red Line. He called it a “boondoggle.” In the bipartisan infrastructure bill, federal funding to revive this mass transit system was made possible by Senators Cardin and Van Hollen and Congressmen Mfume, Ruppersberger, and Sarbanes,.
I successfully introduced House Bill 632 to require an update of studies and surveys on this needed system. My legislation will also prohibit anyone’s home from being condemned to build the Red Line, unlike the case with the “Highway to Nowhere,” the unfinished interstate in West Baltimore.
For over two decades, opioid manufacturers unleashed a scourge of addictive and deadly pills. Maryland joined the lawsuit against them. Our portion of the $26 billion-dollar settlement is approximately $492 million. We obtained a higher share than our population would indicate because the opioid crisis has hit Marylanders harder than in other states.
Under my legislation that passed last year, this money will be used for a variety of authorized opioids abatement programs, such as treatment for substance use disorders and overdose reversal medicines. Two bills that I successfully introduced this session provide for the allocation of these funds among the state and local governments and create an advisory council that will include people who have firsthand experience with opioid addiction and recovery.
Expanding access to the ballot and preventing deceptive attempts to affect the outcome of an election are among my highest priorities. I introduced legislation to expand early voting to the Sunday before Election Day. This issue will be studied.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was a public defender before she became a judge. The origin of the public defender: the Supreme Court held in Gideon v. Wainwright that a criminal defendant has a constitutional right to counsel. Providing a lawyer in civil proceedings, like rent court, for a person who can’t afford an attorney extends the Gideon principle.
Last year, the legislature enacted a right to counsel in eviction cases. This year, we funded it. I was a leader in both of these efforts, introducing legislation and creating our budget strategy.
Maryland is a national leader in preventing lead poisoning because all properties built before 1978 must have a lead inspection at each change of occupancy. However, a landlord’s failure to comply with this law is not an issue of fact in an eviction case. That evidence can be introduced because of legislation that I introduced this session.
Thanks to my parents, I was able to enter public service with no academic debt. It has meant a great deal to me as a legislator to create public service internships and fund loan forgiveness programs. This year, I expanded service opportunities that match 21st century needs of participants and communities with legislation that Senate President Bill Ferguson and I jointly introduced. A Maryland Civilian Conservation Corps is one example.
Our goal is to attract talented young people to the state and entice others to stay here and be part of the work force, by offering in-state tuition to students who perform a service year.
This is an election year. I will be running with my colleagues, Senator Jill Carter and Delegates Dalya Attar and Tony Bridges.
I hope that we have earned your support.
Asking people to cosponsor your bill is the biggest waste of time in Annapolis – except when it isn’t.
Lots of cosponsors aren’t as valuable as one or two people who are leaders on the committee that will decide the fate of your legislation.
They will be in the room where it happens.
Today, Delegate Ariana Kelly asked me to cosponsor the Abortion Care Access Act.
The other cosponsors are all senior members of the Health and Government Operations Committee.
I also took pictures of my signing the bill.
Why such a big deal?
I sent the screen grab to Aunt Margie. Thirty one years ago, at her 60th birthday party, she told her friends that I would be a floor leader when we passed the bill enacting the holding of Roe v. Wade.
We did it the next day.
I also sent the photo to Rachel, my niece.
In 1991, she was six years old. Now she’s the mother of two girls.
Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg (D-Baltimore City), the longest-serving current member of the General Assembly, said the level of activity in any legislative session — including in election years — is often dictated by outside forces.
He observed that even though the legislature is expected to take action on abortion rights and gun control legislation this session, pending Supreme Court rulings on abortion and guns, depending on when they’re delivered, could galvanize lawmakers into more aggressive action.
“I think the circumstances are such that a lot of issues will get an airing this year and we may be addressing more than we would normally do in an election year,” Rosenberg said.
(Above is from article in MarylandMatters.org)
It’s not until June that the Supreme Court usually issues its opinions in the most important and controversial cases.
Our 90-day legislative session in Annapolis ends on April 11.
Consequently, our bill drafting on abortion and guns has to anticipate what action we should require after we adjourn.
This year, those decisions will also have an effect on the state-wide elections.
Maryland General Assembly Set to Convene in Another Session Shaped by COVID
“You can’t plan for a blatantly false or unconstitutional court ruling like this [Supreme Court decision on the Texas abortion law],” said Representative Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, a Democrat who is running for his state’s open Senate seat next year.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/us/politics/scotus-abortion-decision.html
Pro-choice health care providers, activists, and legislators are now responding to the Supreme Court’s decision late Wednesday night.
How can the White House, the Congress, and state legislatures preserve a woman’s right to choose?
In Maryland, we did so thirty years ago.
Anticipating a case where the Court would weaken or eliminate the constitutional protections for abortion, we passed legislation that preserved the holding of Roe v. Wade in Maryland law.
Before a fetus is viable – capable of sustained survival outside the womb, the government may not intervene.
When the fetus is viable, an abortion can be performed in only a limited set of circumstances.
I was one of the leaders of this effort in the House of Delegates.
Next year, we will continue to protect the right to choose for all women, whatever their economic status.
Election fraud is a real problem in Maryland.
The claims regarding climate warming have been disproved.
Maryland law imposes no limits on when abortions can be performed.
My Republican colleagues made those false assertions during floor debate this past weekend.
There was no evidence of fraud in Maryland’s election last year.
When fraud has occurred, I have responded.
Several elections ago, a flyer urged people to vote on the wrong day and implied that you couldn’t vote if you hadn’t paid your rent or the BGE bill.
I passed a law making it a crime to willfully and knowingly attempt to influence fraudulently a voter’s decision whether to go to the polls.
That law was invoked against those responsible for the Election Day recording several years ago urging people to stay home because their votes weren’t needed.
During floor debate this weekend on climate change, I referred to the impact of Hurricane Sandy on New York City and added that several coastal cities are planning for future calamities caused by the rise in sea level.
A colleague and I shared with each other the text of Maryland’s abortion law, which severely limits a woman’s choice to have an abortion after the fetus is viable.
http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=ghg§ion=20-209&enactments=false
“Stress is not something that the average person would think is a true restriction,” my colleague replied.
Stress does not meet the law’s requirement that an abortion is “necessary to protect the life or health of the woman,” the standard in the law.
It is difficult to have a reasoned debate when for one side, far too often, the facts are an accident.
If the Godfather was a legislator, he might have put it this way: It helps to know what your opponents are thinking.
My first meeting today was about a bill of mine that will have its public hearing next week.
I will share the concerns raised this morning with someone who can respond with specific numbers.
My bill heard today would expand telehealth to school-based clinics.
In written testimony, Maryland Right to Life objected that abortions could be provided to school children.
However, that would not be permitted under the Medicaid program, the funding source for these clinics.
I decided to make this point when I testified, instead of responding if it had been raised by a legislator or lobbyist.
Doing it this way, I got to frame the issue.
| “Nonnegotiable,” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has said. “There is no middle ground,” Senator Bernie Sanders declared.
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.
|
