Colleen Grablick
Maryland lawmakers are pressuring Republican Gov. Larry Hogan to release millions of dollars set aside to train medical providers on abortion procedures, fearing the state’s current abortion care infrastructure would not withstand an influx of patients in the coming months if the Supreme Court overturns the 1973 Roe V. Wade ruling, guaranteeing constitutional protections for abortion right.
Last month, overriding a veto from Hogan, Maryland state lawmakers passed sweeping changes to abortion laws, including a provision that set aside $3.5 million for the Abortion Care Clinical Training Program — a program that would train abortion providers across the state. While the law requires that the state allocate $3.5 million yearly to the program starting in 2023, lawmakers also reached a deal setting aside $3.5 million to be used starting this July. Due to a quirk in Maryland’s budgetary process, though, Hogan isn’t required to spend that money in 2022, and the state legislature can’t mandate that he do so. Last week, the Washington Post reported that he in fact planned to withhold the money.
“The Maryland legislature doesn’t have the authority to mandate spending in the upcoming fiscal year, only in future years, so what we did was we set off the money in the budget,” Del. Ariana B. Kelly, who represents Bethesda and sponsored the abortion access law, tells DCist/WAMU. “Basically, the money will either be spent on this program this year, or it will just sit there … and that’s the decision that is in Governor Hogan’s hands right now.”
On Friday, Kelly wrote a letter, co-signed by 86 Democratic state lawmakers, urging Hogan to use the money this year, as the “nation is facing the largest reproductive health crisis in our lifetime.”
“This situation is untenable and disproportionately impacts women from Black and brown communities, rural areas, and low-income families,” reads the letter. “Within several months if not weeks, we may be one of the few safe states within reach for women as far away as Ohio. This influx of patients will result in significant delays and barriers to care for Marylanders.”
The recently passed abortion legislation, the Abortion Care Access Act, allows nurse practitioners, midwives, and physicians assistants to perform abortions across the state. (Previously, only physicians were permitted to perform abortions in Maryland.) The law also requires most private insurance plans to cover abortion without cost-sharing or deductibles, and makes the state’s Medicaid abortion coverage permanent. It’s set to go into effect on July 1 of this year, meaning that on that date, Hogan has the option to release the $3.5 million to train more abortion providers.
Maryland, where abortion access is protected in state law, has long been a destination for abortion care for residents in more restrictive states. In 1992, Maryland voters decided via a ballot referendum that early term abortion access would remain in the state, even if the Supreme Court overturns Roe V. Wade. There is also no waiting period in Maryland to receive an abortion. Some restrictions still remain, however. A parent of a minor must be notified before an abortion is provided (although this may be waived at the request of a health provider), and abortions can only be performed until the fetus is “viable,” meaning it could survive outside of the womb. (Fetal viability is typically considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks, although there is no universal consensus.)
Still, despite being one of the states with broader protection for abortion rights, about two-thirds of Maryland’s counties have no abortion provider, according to the Guttmacher Institute. If Roe V. Wade were overturned, likely immediately restricting abortion access in 26 states, Kelly and other state lawmakers worry that the already-strapped abortion providers will not be able to accommodate an increase in out-of-state patients.
“We know we already have a shortage [of abortion providers],” Kelly says. “We know what happens when abortion is restricted in other states, because we saw what happened in the states adjacent to Texas. If we don’t increase our number of providers in Maryland, when Roe V. Wade is overturned, which looks likes it’s going to happen within weeks, then our wait time for abortion access is going to increase. If we want to make sure that patients in Maryland, as well as out-of-state patients, have access to providers, we need to get that clinical training up and running as soon as possible.”
A spokesperson for Hogan’s office wrote in an emailed statement to DCist/WAMU that the funding will begin “as scheduled,” per the law, meaning 2023, but did not respond to DCist/WAMU’s request for comment on the lawmakers’ letter.
When Hogan vetoed the General Assembly’s Abortion Care Access Act, he argued the legislation would “set back standards for women’s health care and safety.” Kelly says this argument doesn’t hold.
“He’s continuing to say ‘it’s in the best interest of women’s health, it’s not about opposition to abortion, it’s about making sure that only doctors are providing abortion,'” Kelly says. “But if you ask the doctors, the OBGYNs in Maryland are the ones who asked for this. The Maryland chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the doctors in Maryland are saying we need to providing this clinical training. There’s no logic to the opposition, if it’s about women’s health.”
Hogan has largely stayed away from abortion issues as a governor. He’s expressed that he’s personally against abortion, but has recognized that the right to an abortion in Maryland — where nearly 90% of voters support keeping it legal in some circumstance — is a matter of “settled law.”
“Maryland is a pro-choice state, the voters in both parties are overwhelmingly pro-choice,” Kelly says. “I think where this is unfortunate is that because of partisan politics, we’re not able to take the steps we want to take, and the voters of Maryland want us to take right now, in the immediate aftermath of Roe v. Wade potentially being overturned. We’re being slowed down because of Governor Hogan’s choices.”
