Maryland becomes first state to protect abortion in 2024 general election

Voters in Maryland officially said they want to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution. The ballot measure only needed a simple majority to pass, but voters approved it by a significant margin.

Maryland’s current law allows abortion. Democratic Gov. Wes Moore signed a reproductive freedom legislation package in 2023 that further protected electronic health data, shielded abortion providers from prosecution in other states and required public colleges to give students access to comprehensive reproductive care.

The amendment does not set any limits on the procedure, it states people have reproductive freedom and “the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end one’s own pregnancy.”

“Today marks a significant victory for the rights, dignity, and autonomy of every person in our state, and those patients and their families who are forced to leave their home communities to travel to Maryland for healthcare,” Morgan Nuzzo, co-founder of Partners of Abortion Care, a clinic in Maryland, told NPR’s local affiliate.

Since Dobbs, which overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion has become a significant issue on state ballots. In the 2024 election, voters in 10 states are deciding on abortion-related measures. These states include Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York and South Dakota.

Abortion rights groups significantly outspent their opponents in these campaigns, raising more than $160 million. That total is nearly six times what anti-abortion groups raised. In Florida alone, proponents of the abortion rights measure have raised over $75 million.

Florida’s attempt to protect abortion access failed in the 2024 general election, the first statewide measure to fail since 2022. Advocates had previously prevailed on all seven ballot measures that have gone before voters since the Dobbs decision, with many states aiming to enshrine the right to abortion in their state constitutions.