A sign directs people to the voting site at Bronx County Supreme Court House during the primaries. Early voting in New York for the General Election begins on Saturday, Oct. 26. In Maryland, people can cast ballots early starting on Thursday, Oct. 24. Voters in both states will weigh in on reproductive rights ballot questions. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Voters in 10 states will vote directly on reproductive rights proposals, but measures in Maryland and New York are a little bit different: Ballot summaries were crafted by lawmakers — not citizens — and exclude the word ‘abortion.’
Supporters of the ballot questions say the proposed constitutional amendments would secure existing abortion laws, while opponents criticize the scope of the measures, framing them as attacks on parental rights. That latter argument has become a common refrain from lawmakers and advocates across the country who object to abortion-rights measures.
There is technically no specific gestational limit on abortion in Maryland. But state law says that the government may not interfere with abortion access before viability, or at any point in pregnancy if it’s necessary to save the life or health of the mother, or in the case of fetal abnormalities. Providers must notify parents if a minor wants an abortion, unless the patient doesn’t live with their parent or guardian, or notifying them could lead to abuse.
Abortion is legal up to 24 weeks of pregnancy in New York — later if a provider determines the procedure is necessary because the fetus is nonviable, or to save someone’s life or health. There is no parental notification or consent requirement for New Yorkers under the age of 18 seeking abortions.
Leaders of coalitions behind reproductive rights measures in New York and Maryland told States Newsroom the measures would not change existing laws and that arguments claiming the amendments would gut them are misleading, but directors of counter campaigns take issue with the broad language that appears on ballots.
Maryland voters will see Question 1 on the ballot, which asks if they want to codify the right to “reproductive freedom,” including making “decisions to prevent, continue or end” a pregnancy. The amendment would also limit state interference in that right.
“As we learned through the Dobbs decision, it’s completely reasonable for political power to change,” said Jakeya Johnson, executive director of Reproductive Justice Maryland, one of the groups supporting the measure. “And it would make things a lot more difficult for state powers to change our reproductive health laws in our state with a constitutional limit, because it would require a vote of the people to take away those reproductive rights.”
The state has a Democratic-controlled legislature that passed the ballot measure last year and has shored up abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling. Before Democratic Gov. Wes Moore took office in January 2023, Maryland’s governor was Larry Hogan, a Republican who said he was opposed to abortion rights before launching a U.S. Senate bid this year, Maryland Matters reported.
A University of Maryland, Baltimore County, poll conducted last month found that 69% of voters plan to approve the measure. Freedom in Reproduction-Maryland (FIRM) is the committee steering outreach for the measure, but several abortion-rights groups are a part of the coalition.
More than 40 groups have been going door-to-door to inform Marylanders about the details of the ballot measure, Johnson said, and FIRM has been using social media to fight misinformation.
“This constitutional amendment does not change any of Maryland’s current laws,” she said. “Whatever you can do today, you’ll still be able to do after Nov. 5 if this amendment passes. Whatever you cannot do today, you still will not be able to do after Nov. 5.”
Deborah Brocato leads Health Not Harm MD, the ballot committee opposing Question 1. Brocato, who worked at a crisis pregnancy center for over eight years, said her group is not focused on abortion. “We are against this amendment because it is broad, and it will remove parental rights,” she said.
A Maryland anti-abortion group is the largest donor to Health Not Harm, according to the latest campaign finance filings. The group has received a total of $25,000 from the Right to Life of Montgomery County.
Brocato’s group has received $139,232 so far, less than Freedom in Reproduction-Maryland’s $752,568.
Planned Parenthood of Maryland, FIRM’s largest donor, has given a total of $202,475. In April, the Metro Washington, D.C., affiliate contributed $100,000 to FIRM.
Brocato takes issue with the language in the proposal — chiefly the lack of the words “woman” or “abortion.”
“If there are no minimum age limits, there are no parental consent requirements. Reproductive freedom is not defined in the amendment, nor in the law to put it on the ballot, nor in any Maryland law. “
She also said the measure would “supersede any parental consent laws that exist for anything else regarding the reproductive system, because all laws must conform to the constitution.”
Johnson rejected the notion that parental notification would be nullified if Marylanders approve Question 1.
“I have a 6-year-old daughter who can’t even have her asthma medicine at school without a note from her doctor and my explicit permission,” Johnson said. “They think that kids are going to be able to go to school and have sex-change operations without parental consent. It’s just ridiculous.”
In New York, Proposal 1 asks voters if they want to add an Equal Rights Amendment to the state constitution. It would clarify that no person shall be discriminated against based on factors such as their race, ethnicity, age, disability, religion or sex, “including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.” The ballot language does not propose removing the 24-week limit.
The proposal was temporarily removed from the ballot in May after Republicans sued, arguing that state lawmakers didn’t follow proper procedures when they passed it in 2022, New York Focus reported. But an appeals court restored the referendum in June. An effort by abortion-rights advocates to force the state Board of Elections to include the word “abortion” in a description of the amendment failed in August, according to the Associated Press.
New Yorkers for Equal Rights is the ballot committee backing Prop 1, while Coalition to Protect Kids-NY opposes the amendment.
Ayesha Kreutz, the executive director of the counter campaign, said the group is focused on the gender identity part of the amendment, not abortion. “Part of our problem with the whole thing is that it is so vague that anything could be attributed to it after it passes,” Kreutz said.
New Yorkers who both support and oppose abortion are against Prop 1, according to Kreutz, who said she had her first abortion at age 14: “My mom was aware that I was pregnant and, she walked through the process with me and said, ‘This is what we feel like the best thing for you to do is.’ It was a very hard and personal decision.”
Still, the biggest donors to Protect Kids-NY, which has received a total of $369,178, are affiliated with anti-abortion organizations.
“The opposition campaign has been dead set on spreading misinformation about what Prop 1 is and what it does,” said Sasha Ahuja, campaign director at New Yorkers for Equal Rights. “Let’s be clear, the Coalition to Protect Kids is funded by anti-abortion extremists.”
Individual donors connected with anti-abortion groups contributed significantly — more than $300,000 in all — to the counter-campaign, according to campaign finance filings.
But New Yorkers for Equal Rights has far outpaced the opposition, raising over $5.1 million so far. The largest donation came from the state Civil Liberties Union: $1,270,546. The National Institute for Reproductive Health Action Fund followed, with $489,528.
Though the effort to get the word “abortion” on the ballot summary in New York failed, Ahuja said the group is focused on spreading awareness about how ERA would protect abortion access.
“New Yorkers also know that when we’re talking about protecting rights on the basis of their pregnancy, that’s part of health care and autonomy,” she said. “That includes access to abortion, that includes ensuring that our protections for abortion care here in the state of New York are protected in our state constitution.”
Both campaigns have stressed that voters need to flip the ballot over in order to mark their decision on the measure. “Regardless of if somebody is going to vote yes or no, people need to know that there is going to be something on the back of their ballot,” Kreutz said.
According to a Siena College poll released last month, 64% of New York state voters support the proposed ERA constitutional amendment. “The amendment has nearly 60% support outside of New York City, and 78% support in the City,” pollster Steven Greenberg said in a press release.