Abortion in Maryland is legal at all stages of pregnancy.
In March 2023, the Maryland House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate voted to enshrine a broad right to abortion access into the state constitution. The constitutional amendment received approval by the voters in November 2024. In April 2022, the Maryland General Assembly passed the Abortion Care Access Act. The bill allows a broader range of qualified healthcare workers—nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and physician assistants—to perform abortions and allocates $3.5 million to a new program within the Maryland Department of Health to train healthcare workers. Additionally, the bill requires the majority of health insurance plans, including private health insurance plans, to cover abortions cost free. The legislation was enacted in 2022 with a gubernatorial veto override.
A voter referendum adding abortion rights to the state constitution passed in 2024.
Historical practices Abortion has been documented since the colonial period in Maryland. Abortion practices included the use of herbal remedies such as opium, savin (see Juniperus Sabina) and other herbs that caused the body to "purge". These practices are mainly recorded in the context of legal proceedings, such as a 1663 case in which a Maryland doctor was accused of administering an abortifacient to a servant he impregnated, though the case was not prosecuted.
Other herbal remedies included snakeroot, (also known as Polygala senega), to induce abortion. A medical student at the University of Pennsylvania by the name of Thomas Massie wrote in his 1803 doctoral dissertation that snakeroot was used as an abortifacient, citing a physician in Harford County, Maryland who reported its use among the rural population there.
Midwives also performed abortions throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Progressive-era public health reformers in Baltimore sought to restrict midwifery, and conducted a survey in 1909 in which they claimed that 32% of the city's midwives were "suspected of criminal practice," that is, of providing abortion services. This Progressive coalition was made up of white, middle-class physicians, nurses, and female reformers, such as doctors Mary Sherwood and Lilian Welsh, who characterized midwifery and abortion as vices of the immigrant and African American lower classes. Historian Leslie Reagan points out that physicians were also performing abortions at this time, but sought to direct enforcement towards midwives and lower-class patients.
The first laws regulating abortion in the state were passed in 1867, banning abortion except by a physician to "secure the safety of the mother."
In 1968, Maryland enacted a law allowing abortion in hospital settings in cases of rape, severe fetal deformity, or when life and health were endangered.
In 1973, the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade made abortion legal without restrictions until the third trimester of pregnancy, overruling Maryland law. After Roe, clinics opened in the state to provide abortions outside of hospitals, and Planned Parenthood began providing outpatient abortion services. In 1991 the Maryland General Assembly passed a law that codified Roe v. Wade, which was upheld in a public referendum.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned the federally-protected right to abortion in 2022; abortion remains legal in Maryland.
Legislative history Both medical and procedural abortion were widely practiced throughout the United States in the early 19th century, often by midwives, homeopaths, and others without medical degrees. By the 1850s, physicians wished to push these practitioners out of the medical marketplace and assert greater control over reproduction and gender roles. Maryland was listed among states with no criminal abortion law by Dr. Horatio Storer, a leader of the campaign by physicians to enact abortion bans. The first law regulating abortion in Maryland was passed in 1867 and completely banned the procedure, but there was no enabling clause in the bill, leaving it unenforceable. A second law was passed in 1868, banning abortion except by a physician, after consulting "one or more respectable physicians," to "secure the safety of the mother." The vague language of this law exposed physicians and hospitals to legal risk.
From the 1930s onward, physicians began seeking greater authority to determine the need for therapeutic abortion without risking legal consequences. This reform movement influenced the American Law Institute (ALI) Model Penal Code of 1962, which proposed legalizing abortion to preserve the health (whether physical or mental) of the mother, as well as if the pregnancy is due to incest or rape, or if doctors agree that there is a significant risk that the child will be born with a serious mental or physical defect. A law derived from the ALI Model Penal Code was passed in Maryland in 1968.
On May 26, 1970, Governor Marvin Mandel vetoed legislation that would have removed all state restrictions on abortions. Mandel cited concerns that the bill included no residency requirement, that the partner and/or parent(s) of the pregnant woman would not be notified, and that the law would "allow an abortion, even in the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy". Heavy lobbying surrounded the bill. The medical community advocated for its passing while the Catholic Church lobbied against it.
The U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973, which legalized abortion until the third trimester of pregnancy, overruled Maryland's previous abortion laws. During the 1970s, three Maryland laws attempted to place restrictions on abortion access: a 1975 law banned referral fees to abortion referral agencies; a 1977 parental notification law was ruled unconstitutional; a 1979 "information before abortion" law required abortion-seekers to be given a pamphlet promoting alternatives.
In 1991 Maryland passed a law, signed by Governor William Donald Schaefer, that codified Roe v. Wade, guaranteeing the right to abortion and repealing the earlier "information before abortion" act. Anti-abortion groups successfully petitioned to bring the law to a public referendum. Question 6, to uphold the abortion rights bill, passed in 1992 with 62% of voters in favor and 38% opposed.
In Maryland in 2013, according to The New York Times, something "rare in this era of polarized abortion politics" occurred when laws that significantly tightened the licensing and inspection of abortion clinics were supported by those on both sides of the abortion issue.
Two bills for six-week abortion bans, called "fetal heartbeat bills" by proponents, were filed in the Maryland House of Delegates in 2019 and failed. On February 8, 2019, Ric Metzgar filed HB 933. On February 8, 2019, Robin L. Grammer, Jr. filed HB 978, a bill entitled "Keep Our Hearts Beating Act". In 2019, Former Maryland House Speaker Michael Busch proposed an amendment to the state's constitution to enshrine the right for women to have an abortion. His replacement, Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones, said she would try to re-introduce the amendment in 2020 in response to the abortion bans in the states of Alabama and Georgia.
In March 2023, the Maryland House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate voted to enshrine a broad right to abortion access into the state constitution. The constitutional amendment received approval by the voters in November 2024. In April 2022, the Maryland General Assembly passed the Abortion Care Access Act. The bill allows a broader range of qualified healthcare workers—nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and physician assistants—to perform abortions and allocates $3.5 million to a new program within the Maryland Department of Health to train healthcare workers. Additionally, the bill requires the majority of health insurance plans, including private health insurance plans, to cover abortions cost free. The legislation was enacted in 2022 with a gubernatorial veto override.
In February 2024, the Moore administration announced over $15 million in grant awards and a budget proposal to further improve reproductive health care and abortion access in Maryland. It includes $10.6 million in grant funding awarded to the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) to administer the state's Abortion Care Clinical Training Program. Specifically aiming to train clinicians in rural and underserved areas of the state. The administration also is proposing for FY 2025, that $5 million be allocated to increase Medicaid provider reimbursement for reproductive services and abortion care.
Judicial history Prosecutions of abortion were rare in colonial Maryland, and often linked with other offenses. In 1663 John Lombrozo was presented by a Charles County jury for provoking an abortion for his indentured servant Elizabeth Wiles whom he had raped. He had already been in court for blasphemy and sexual offenses. When he married Wiles, charges were dropped. Arrests of abortion providers became more common in Maryland from the 1940s through 60s with increased law enforcement. This led to notable criminal cases including the prosecutions and appeals of Dr. George Lotrell Timanus (Adams, Nelson, and Timanus vs. State), Dr. Milan Vuitch (Vuitch vs. State), and other physician and non-physician providers.
The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant states could no longer regulate abortion until the third trimester. Previous abortion convictions under Maryland state law were overturned. In 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, , returning abortion regulation to the states; abortion remains legal in Maryland and is not subject to criminal prosecution.
Medication Abortion Medication abortion is legal in Maryland, both through an in-person appointment and through telehealth services. Under the Maryland Abortion Care Access Act Of 2022, medication abortion must be fully covered by private and public insurers such as Medicaid. In June 2024, the Supreme Court upheld the right to access the medication abortion pill, mifepristone. Prior to this decision, Governor Wes Moore had announced in 2023 that the Maryland Department of Health would work with the University of Maryland Medical Center to secure a two and a half year supply of the medication in case it became unavailable on the market.
Clinic history
Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state decreased by one, going from 52 in 1982 to 51 in 1992.
Maryland had 25 abortion clinics and 19 other facilities that provide abortions as of 2017. In that same year, 71% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic and 29% of women in the state aged 15–44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic.
In 2017, there were nine Planned Parenthood clinics, five of which offered abortion services.
In 2023, the Guttmacher Institute estimated that in 2023 there were a total of 38,590 clinician-provided abortions performed in Maryland, including more than 4,000 for patients who came from out of state.
Barriers to access Maryland is a state that has highly ranked reproductive rights protections, but there are still barriers to safe and legal abortions. According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, Maryland is ranked #3 across all fifty states for reproductive rights and received an A− rating.
Parental notification