Marylanders voted to enshrine reproductive rights in the state’s constitution on Tuesday.
More than 74 percent of voters supported The Reproductive Rights Referendum, listed as Question 1 on Maryland’s ballot, when the Associated Press called the race Tuesday at 9:28 p.m. The ballot question would amend the state’s constitution to protect the “right to reproductive freedom,” including access to abortion, birth control and other forms of contraception.
The referendum prohibits the state from infringing on a person’s right to prevent, continue or end their pregnancy, unless doing so can be “justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”
“I think what it shows is just the absolute commitment of the people of Maryland to protecting our autonomy over our bodies,” said Del. Lorig Charkoudian (D-Montgomery).
A majority of voters in all but one Maryland County — Garrett County — supported the referendum.
The referendum’s passage comes more than two years after a Supreme Court ruling in June 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade and removed federal protections for abortion.
After the Supreme Court overturned the landmark ruling, the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill in 2023 that allowed Marylanders to vote on a referendum to enshrine reproductive rights into the state’s constitution.
[Marylanders will vote on reproductive rights ballot question in 2024 election]
Sharon Blugis, the deputy director of Reproductive Justice Maryland, said she hopes the amendment’s passage serves as a reminder that abortion is health care.
Maryland was one of 10 states with abortion-related measures on its November ballot.
Measures to protect reproductive rights passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Montana, Missouri and New York, according to the Associated Press. Voters in Nevada also approved protections, but in order for them to take effect, the ballot measure needs to pass again in 2026.
Measures to protect abortion rights did not pass in Florida, South Dakota and Nebraska. Nebraska voters approved a measure prohibiting abortion after the first trimester, with some exceptions for instances of rape or incest or to save the pregnant parent’s life.
“I am just so comforted that despite what we’ve seen at the national level, that here in Maryland, we chose to put this, to put reproductive freedom in our constitution,” said state Sen. Dawn Gile (D-Anne Arundel).
Maryland state law has already protected abortion since 1992 when voters supported a ballot question to codify Roe v. Wade. More than 61 percent of voters answered yes to the 1992 ballot question.
This story has been updated.
