Maryland votes to enshrine reproductive freedom in state constitution

Maryland voters appeared to overwhelmingly affirm their support for reproductive rights Tuesday, with early returns showing almost 74% of Marylanders voted to enshrine the right to an abortion and other reproductive freedoms into the Maryland Constitution.

“Maryland voters have rightly chosen to protect their health and their futures. The strong protection of reproductive rights that has existed for decades in Maryland law is now ironclad, enshrined in the state constitution,” said Erin Bradley, chair of Freedom in Reproduction-Maryland (FIRM), in a written statement. “Voters have guaranteed reproductive certainty amid uncertain times.”

With 61% of the votes counted just hours after the polls closed, Question 1 held an insurmountable lead of 1.4 million votes for to just over 500,000 against.

Question 1 will amend the state constitution to protect “an individual’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom, including but not limited to the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue or end the individual’s pregnancy.” The amendment also states that 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.”

Those protections were already the law in Maryland — also approved by voters in a 1992 referendum — but abortion rights groups pushed for it to be enshrined in the constitution after federal protections were gutted in 2022. That’s when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its Roe v. Wade decision, which had recognized a federal right to an abortion for almost 5o years.

The Supreme Court said in its Dobbs decision that Roe had been wrongly decided, and it said the question of abortion regulation was one for state or federal lawmakers.

That triggered abortion bans in some states, while others moved to bolster abortion rights. Maryland is one of 10 states that had abortion questions on Tuesday’s ballot.

The ballot measure’s success was largely anticipated in Maryland, long a bastion of abortion rights. The 1992 referendum passed by a 2-1 margin, and an October poll from the Institute of Politics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, indicated that 69% of Marylanders planned to vote for Question 1.

Adding the amendment to the state constitution was designed to protect abortion rights from federal interference. But advocates were still concerned that wins by abortion opponents at the federal level — whether for president or Congress — could complicate the impact of Maryland’s constitutional amendment.

Susan Heltemes, 72, president of the District 18 Democratic club in Montgomery County, said that she was young when Roe v. Wade was decided. At a Democratic election night watch party Tuesday night in College Park, Heltemes said she breathed a “sigh of relief” to see Question 1 approved.

“I am of an age where I was a very young women when we had Roe versus Wade,” Heltemes. “It always seemed like that it was there. And now my nieces and my great nieces are struggling for what I took for granted, and it just isn’t right.”

Wearing a “Yes on 1” button, she said that voting for the ballot measure was the “right thing to do.”

“We can’t go backwards anymore,” Heltemes said.

It could be days or weeks before a winner of the presidential race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris. But in the meantime, advocates say, the right to an abortion in Maryland will be protected.

That said, Heltemes understands that there could be some challenges depending on the results of the presidential election.

“If Trump were to win, I know that tomorrow there’ll be new issues to face,” she said.

Ahead of Election Day, Bradley, with FIRM, said that the constitutional amendment will provide the “highest protection” a state can provide for abortion rights.

High-profile fight over abortion is not a first for Maryland voters

“If we get an anti-sexual reproductive health president, as former President Trump was during his time as president … the constitutional amendment provides the highest protection in the state of Maryland for Marylanders,” Bradley said Monday. “So, unless or until there is a federal attempt to outright ban abortion nationwide at the federal level, the Maryland constitutional amendment protects abortion and reproductive rights at the highest level we can give in our state.”

Trump’s stance on abortion has shifted over the years. While he has boasted about appointing three of the six Supreme Court judges who voted to overturn Roe, he has since stated that the question of abortion regulation should be left to states, and that he would not sign federal legislation that restricts abortion nationwide.’

Meanwhile, Harris says she supports restoring abortion protections that were granted under Roe v. Wade.

That said, about 1 in 4 Marylanders had voted against the measure in early returns. Many anti-abortion activists say that the constitutional amendment is unnecessary, as Maryland law already permits abortions, among other criticisms of the ballot question.

Jeffrey Trimbath, president of the Maryland Family Institute, said that opponents are looking into legal avenues to challenge the constitutional amendment. He said they’re looking into how the constitutional amendment interacts with state law allowing physicians to refuse to perform certain medical procedures that conflict with their religious views, such as abortions, among other potential legal challenges.

“When you raise it to the supreme law of the land, which this amendment does, then you put it on a whole new legal plane,” Trimbath said. “Whether that’s individual doctors or faith-based hospitals throughout the state — will that now mean those conscious protections will now be challenged? If that’s the case, then you’re looking at a possible conflict between the First Amendment and this 48^th amendment to the Maryland constitution.”