MARYLAND - Thursday morning in Annapolis, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and members of Maryland's state government spoke about legislation to protect women's reproductive healthcare.
Moore discussed his decision to release $3.5 million dollars of previously withheld funding for the Abortion Care Clinical Training Program, which he said will help ensure access to high quality, safe abortion care in Maryland by providing grants for clinical training of abortion care providers and their clinical care teams.
"Unfortunately, as we saw in real time, the U.S. Supreme Court no longer recognizes that the fundamental right to privacy protects our ability to make our own reproductive health provisions, leaving the decision to regulate abortion up to individual states without individual and additional constitutional protections," said Moore. "As long as I am the governor of Maryland, our state will be a safe haven for abortion rights. But the importance of today and the importance of all of these leaders is this: we're going to make sure that Maryland is a safe haven for abortion rights long after I am governor of this state."
Officials discussed a proposed amendment to Maryland's Constitution that would preserve the right to abortion in the state. A similar proposal was made last year but failed to advance in the Maryland Senate.
"Reproductive care must be a right enshrined in our constitution so it can never be up for debate or used as a bargaining chip," House Speaker Adrienne Jones said Thursday. "We must take further action so anyone seeking or providing reproductive care is protected."
Moore shared that he and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller support four bills that will protect abortion access, privacy, and out-of-state patients, and that he plans to sign them.