While the Montgomery County Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday affirming its commitment to protecting and increasing access to reproductive healthcare, the reaction among activists gathered outside the building was less than united.
The resolution, sponsored by Council Vice President Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4), affirms the council’s commitment to reproductive healthcare by recommending that county agencies pursue opportunities and coordinate with each other to protect people and entities that are providing, assisting, seeking or obtaining reproductive health services in the county.
The resolution also affirms the council’s support for a proposed Maryland constitutional amendment to protect the right to reproductive healthcare access and encourage residents to vote in favor of the constitutional amendment when it appears on the election ballot this November. If passed, the amendment will enshrine the right to an abortion in the Maryland constitution.
“It Is very important that we guarantee this right here in our state,” Stewart said when introducing the resolution Tuesday. “This is a matter of freedom, it is a matter of dignity, it is a matter of wellness for those individuals seeking care, as well as for their families and our entire community.”
While abortion has been legal in Maryland since 1973, the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S Supreme Court led pro-choice advocates in the state to push for a constitutional amendment to protect access to reproductive healthcare.
Before the council voted on the resolution, a few dozen supporters and critics alike rallied outside the council building in Rockville, holding signs and arguing with each other. While Stewart’s press conference was initially scheduled to take place on the steps outside the building after the vote, the location was changed Monday to take place inside the council building. There was a larger police and security presence around the building and surrounding the press conference than there is during a typical council meeting.
Stewart still made a brief appearance on the steps to address the crowd and thank supporters for attending before heading inside for her press conference.
“We are all going to vote for this constitutional amendment in November,” she said while members of the crowd cheered and booed.
While many protesters held signs stating opposition to abortion, the primary message of those opposed to the resolution was concern that the proposed constitutional amendment could contain a loophole that would allow for minors to access gender-affirming care without parental permission.
Some protesters handed out fliers stating the proposed amendment is a “parents rights” issue and asserting that a vote against it “can ensure our children will not be able to undergo elective gender surgery without the approval of their parents.” The fliers also said it “includes the right of children and teenage minors to eliminate their reproductive capability with gender reassignment surgery that alters their reproductive organs.”
However, the ballot amendment question text does not contain any references to minors, gender-affirming care or transgender individuals.
The text of the question, as it will appear on the ballot, states “the proposed amendment confirms an individual’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom, including but not limited to the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end the individual’s pregnancy, and provides the State may not, directly or indirectly, deny, burden, or abridge the right unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”
A path forward
Inside at the press conference, the environment was much quieter as a few dozen county and state officials and advocates joined councilmembers to discuss the path forward for reproductive healthcare in the county and across Maryland.
Alice Harper, an abortion provider with a clinic in the county, said while the vast majority of patients she sees are from Montgomery County, she has also treated women in medical crises who traveled from states with abortion bans. She shared the story of a woman from Texas who had planned and wanted her pregnancy but faced a medical emergency that made it unviable. Her Texas doctor’s solution was for her to go into hospice care. The woman’s husband decided instead they should travel to the clinic in the county, where she received a procedure that saved her life, Harper said.
“It’s an honor to do this work, and I’m so glad that I’ve been able to do it,” Harper said. “I work with a wonderful team of physicians and counselors who are so compassionate and so caring and really sacrifice some of their personal security to do this job and live in the shadows. We all live in the shadows.”
Two councilmembers shared how abortion access has personally impacted their lives.
Councilmember Kristin Mink (D-Dist. 5) said she had received an abortion several years ago.
“There were numerous reasons for this, none of which are the business of anyone but me and my doctor. Every person should have that freedom to decide where and when and with whom they will or will not have a baby,” Mink said. “And it is extremely weird, but some people want to insert the government into those most personal conversations and decisions.”
Councilmember Dawn Luedtke (D-Dist. 7) shared that she was born after her birth mother was raped at age 15 on the side of the road by a truck driver and was not able to legally access an abortion. She said her birth mother has encouraged her to share her story and speak out in support of abortion access.
“I have used my voice, and I’m not exactly shy … and we have some folks outside here today, and we are going to continue to have that,” Luedtke said, referencing the protesters.
She said it is important to continue to focus on who benefits from having access to reproductive healthcare and making sure it’s available to all communities.
Ariana Kelly, executive director of the Maryland Commission for Women and a former state lawmaker representing Montgomery County, said it is important for voters to understand what the constitutional amendment would do and what it won’t do if approved by voters.
“It is about protecting an individual’s freedom to make decisions about pregnancy, to make decisions including contraception, abortion, childcare,” Kelly said. “It’s going to protect IVF. It’s going to protect access to contraception, including the over-the-counter birth control pill.”
