City Council resolution would shield abortion seekers in Baltimore from out-of-state prosecution
BALTIMORE -- Baltimore City Council is taking on a bill to further protect abortion providers from out-of-state prosecution.
Baltimore City Council resolution 185-r would prevent the city from retaining records that might be used to retaliate against people seeking abortion care.
"Health care should be protected, especially reproductive health care," said Karen Nelson, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Maryland.
Maryland passed a law this year protecting patient information from being shared out-of-state without permission.
Nelson favors the bill, citing its influx of patients coming into Maryland and Baltimore City.
"Our out-of-state patients have increased by 50 percent since the overturn of Roe," Nelson said.
"Anti-abortion states are using medical records to prosecute providers in those seeking reproductive care," said Ebony Thompson, the Baltimore City Solicitor.
The Justice Department this month filed an opinion in an Alabama lawsuit, arguing people have the right to interstate travel to seek abortion care.
"It's really kind of two worlds out there in reproductive health care across America," Nelson said.
Twenty-six states have either banned or severely restricted access. However, since 2022, abortion-rights supporters have prevailed in seven out of seven states where the issue has been on the ballot.
"Our goal is to ensure that patients get access to the wide range of contraceptive choices as a regular part of primary care," said Mark Edwards, the CEO of Upstream USA.
On Tuesday, Gov. Moore announced that primary care providers will receive training from a nonprofit in reproductive health with the goal of expanding access to contraceptives.
"It is imperative that we invest in, and we believe in, our women and girls, and believe in them enough, that they are getting the resources to learn about family planning options before abortion care even needs to be an option," Moore said.
In the year since Roe vs. Wade was overturned, Maryland has enhanced abortion access by allowing for more medical professionals to provide it, which includes stockpiling drugs to induce abortion and putting abortion access on the ballot next November to enshrine it in the state constitution.
The Baltimore City Council bill would essentially match up with the existing state law passed this year, protecting patient clinical information from being shared, without permission, out-of-state.