Maryland lawmakers override Republican governor's veto to expand abortion access

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Maryland has become the latest state to take steps to protect its population from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, as is expected to happen this summer. State legislators expanded abortion rights by overriding Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto over the weekend.

The new Maryland law expands which medical providers can perform abortions, allowing nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and trained physician assistants in addition to doctors. It also calls for most insurance providers to cover abortion without deductibles or other costs, and puts $3.5 million into a new training program with the mandate to “expand the number of health care professionals with abortion care training and increase the racial and ethnic diversity among health care professionals with abortion care training.”

Maryland isn’t the only state making recent moves to shore up reproductive rights, though.

Last week, Colorado passed the Reproductive Health Equity Act, which will ensure that the basic rights guaranteed by Roe continue in the state. “In the State of Colorado, the serious decision to start or end a pregnancy with medical assistance will remain between a person, their doctor, and their faith,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement.

“This bill simply maintains the status quo regardless of what happens at the federal level and preserves all existing constitutional rights and obligations,” Polis specified.

In Michigan, where a 1931 abortion ban is still on the books and could be enforced after the Supreme Court overturns Roe, a Republican-controlled state legislature means there’s no chance legislators will protect reproductive rights. Instead, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is suing in an effort to get the state Supreme Court to overturn the state ban.

If Roe is overturned with the state ban still in effect, Whitmer tweeted as she announced the lawsuit, “nearly 2.2 million women lose access to legal abortion. Let me put that into perspective for you. They lose their reproductive freedom, economic freedom, and are denied the right to chart their own destiny.

”No matter what happens to Roe, I am going to fight like hell and use all the tools I have as governor to ensure reproductive freedom is protected,” she added. “Today in court, I represent all those who deserve the freedom to choose their own future. That’s a fight worth having.”

Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union have also filed a lawsuit seeking to block the 1931 law from being enforced.

This shouldn’t be necessary, though. The Maryland law actually expanding abortion access would be a good thing even without the looming threat from the Trump-McConnell Supreme Court. But the purely defensive move from Colorado and the Hail Mary effort from Whitmer should not be necessary, and would not be if Republicans had not shattered norms by first holding one Supreme Court seat open for close to a year of then-President Barack Obama’s term and then rushing to fill another seat after voting had already started in the 2020 elections.

The Trump-packed Supreme Court will toss Roe: Blue states, providers scramble to fill the gaps

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