Del. Lesley Lopez (D-Montgomery), in the House chamber Thursday, defended her bill to create a fund to help pay for abortion services for uninsured and underinsured women. (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Maryland Matters)
Lawmakers on both sides of the abortion debate shared personal and emotional stories Thursday, with one holding back tears at one point, in a failed Republican attempt to derail a bill that would make millions available to help pay for the procedure.
The House ultimately voted 98-37 along party lines Thursday night to approve House Bill 930, but not before 40 minutes of debate during a House session earlier in the day when Republicans tried to put up a variety of amendments. The debate, at times, got personal.
Del. Tiffany T. Alston, (D-Prince George’s County), said the state should stay out of decisions about an abortion, which “should be made between a doctor and a patient.”
“As someone who has had a transvaginal ultrasound and had an ectopic pregnancy, you do not get those sounds out of your head,” Alston said. “It was a medical emergency – and it is not the government’s business about what happens with my body, when I am meeting with my doctor. We should not be legislating this stuff.”
On the other side, Del. April Rose (R-Frederick and Carroll) told the story of a niece who was encouraged to end her pregnancy due to presumed medical issues of the fetus.
“My niece had a transvaginal ultrasound. Her baby was the size, actually smaller, than this bottle,” she said, holding up a standard-sized disposable water bottle.
“She was told that she should abort the baby because of all of the potential health implications. He is 4 – and he is fantastic,” Rose said, her voice starting to shake as she held back tears. “I am standing for him, and for the women who should have the opportunity to make the choice of life.”
Many of the amendments debated Thursday were recycled versions of measures that have been tried and killed in recent committee hearings or in previous years by the heavily Democratic and pro-abortion legislature. Anti-abortion arguments can be a tough sell in Maryland, where voters in November voted 3-1 for a constitutional amendment protecting reproductive rights, but that didn’t keep Republican lawmakers from trying.
They were challenging Del. Lesley J. Lopez’s (D-Montgomery) HB930, which would give the state Department of Health access to about $25 million in funds that were collected as part of the federal Affordable Care Act, but have not been spent down. The money comes from $1-a-month fee that insurers in the ACA marketplace are required to collect on every policy to fund abortion services for their policyholders.
The fund has been growing by about $3 million a year for the past 15 years, as collections have outpaced need. If the bill is passed and signed into law, those funds would be distributed to providers to help cover abortion costs for uninsured and underinsured individuals, along with other situations.
Del. William J. Wivell (R-Washington and Frederick) offered an amendment that would require data collection on abortions done in the state, including the method of abortion, age of the fetus and reason for the abortion.
Lopez reminded him that he submitted similar language in a bill back in 2020, when it “died a dignified and peaceful death in a drawer,” she said, meaning the bill was never brought to a vote because it was not likely to pass out of the Health and Government Operations Committee.
“The reason why the committee did not move on it, was because it was out of alignment with the will of the committee and the will of the body,” Lopez said. “We have been actively working to try to protect data on reproductive care for years.”
When that amendment failed on party lines, Wivell offered an amendment that would have required a 24-hour wait time after a transabdominal ultrasound before a pregnant patient could receive an abortion. It would also have the physician offer to let the patient hear the “fetal heartbeat.”
The amendment resembled legislation that was scheduled for a hearing in February but withdrawn by the sponsor, said Lopez, who called for its defeat.
“I think it’s important to note that just last November, our voters, in almost every single legislative district, voted to enshrine reproductive rights without conditions into our constitution — and what this amendment does, is introduce a condition for care,” Lopez said.
Del. Susan K. McComas (R-Harford), didn’t see it that way, and argued that Wivell’s amendment was a matter of “informed consent.”
“I have been corresponding with a lady out in Western Maryland who has had two abortions,” McComas said “She is very, very sorry that she was not allowed to know that she could have a sonogram, and she might not have had those two abortions if she knew she could hear a heartbeat.”
Marathon of abortion-related bills in House Health committee shows fight is not over in the state
That amendment failed, as did three other GOP proposals, including one to require the collection of data on how many, if any, taxpayer dollars go to abortion services for out-of-state patients. Another would have restricted use of the ACA grants to abortions provided to Maryland residents, excluding patients who come in from out of town.
The last amendment would have required that abortion providers receive training to spot signs of sex trafficking victims. Lopez said that was unnecessary, since medical providers already get similar training.
Lopez urged passage of her bill, saying the ACA dollars would otherwise go to waste.
“These funds have been collected for the past 15 years, and they have no other purpose than going to provide abortion services,” Lopez said. “If we do not use those funds, if we do not have a grant program, they will continue to get dusty, they will go unused.”
Full House approval of the bill comes just days before Monday’s “cross-over” deadline, the date by which a bill must be approved by one chamber of the legislature to be guaranteed a hearing in the other.
The Senate version of the bill, Senate Bill 848, was approved 8-3 in a party-line vote in the Finance Committee earlier this week. It is likely to come up for a vote by the full Senate soon.
In committee, Republicans unsuccessfully offered two familiar amendments to SB848, which was sponsored by Sen. Guy Guzzone (D-Howard).
Sen. Johnny Mautz (R-Middle Shore) on Wednesday offered an amendment to require reporting on the use of taxpayer funds toward abortion, specifically looking at how many residents are benefiting from the fund compared to the number of out-of-state patients, similar to an amendment that would be offered on HB 390 the following day.
Same goes for an amendment that Minority Whip Justin Ready (R-Frederick and Carroll) offered, to require that ACA-funded grants for abortion services be restricted to Maryland residents.
Both Republican-backed amendments failed.