Advocates from both sides of the abortion debate say Vice President Kamala Harris’ sudden emergence as the Democratic presidential nominee has breathed new life into what has been a low-key battle for reproductive freedom in Maryland.
The question is whether voters will feel the same on Election Day.
“The whole world has changed. Even in Maryland, where we’re safe and we’re working hard to get the amendment, the excitement level is like on steroids. It’s like everybody came to life,” said Sharon Blugis, deputy director of Reproductive Justice Maryland.
The amendment she is referring to is a Maryland ballot initiative to enshrine “reproductive freedom” in the state constitution. While it is a high-profile fight in other states, advocates and political analysts consider Maryland a safe bet for reproductive rights, with a majority of voters expected to approve the measure protecting the right to an abortion in the state.
Despite the long odds, abortion opponents have been fighting the proposal. And they say Harris’s nomination “intensifies” their effort to combat the ballot referendum.
“I think we’ve seen a renewed activism on this ballot question,” said Jeffrey Trimbath, president of the Maryland Family Institute, which is against abortion. “We think that’s going to motivate folks to get more engaged on the other side of this question.”
Right to Reproductive Freedom referendum
On July 16, Secretary of State Susan Lee certified the ballot language for the Right to Reproductive Freedom referendum on the Nov. 5 ballot:
“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.”
Voters will choose between “For the Constitutional Amendment,” “Against the Constitutional Amendment,” or leave the question blank.
Even though she just launched her campaign for president, Harris has been a vocal supporter of reproductive freedom since well before her presidential campaign began.
In June, Harris visited Ritchie Coliseum at the University of Maryland, College Park, on the two-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision that overturned federal abortion protections under Roe v. Wade.
At the time, President Joe Biden was still the presumptive Democratic nominee for president and Harris was his running mate. One of her primary roles in the campaign was to assure Democratic voters that the Biden-Harris ticket supported restoring abortion protections granted under Roe.
“This is a fight for freedom. The fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not having her government tell her what to do,” Harris said at the Ritchie Coliseum event.
She reiterated those sentiments again Tuesday evening, when she introduced her own running-mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), touting him as the first governor to protect abortion rights in his state following the Dobbs decision. In 2023, Walz signed legislation to create a statutory right to reproductive freedom in Minnesota, including one’s “fundamental right to continue the pregnancy and give birth, or obtain an abortion.”
Despite Harris’ prominence on the issue, Jacob Rubashkin, deputy editor for Inside Elections, is skeptical that her presence as the presidential nominee will have a significant impact on the outcome of Maryland’s ballot initiative.
“I’m not sure that Harris at the top of the ticket changes the outlook in any significant way for this ballot measure in Maryland … It was always going to outperform the Democratic ticket. I think there are voters who are going to vote Republican but also support this ballot measure,” he said.
A 2022 poll from the Baltimore Sun, in partnership with the University of Baltimore, reported that 71% of voters at the time would be supportive of changing the state constitution to guarantee a right to abortion.
For pro-abortion access advocates like Blugis, the Harris campaign’s full-throated support of “reproductive freedom” is preferable to Biden, who was less engaged with the issue when he was the candidate.
“Biden was OK – I think he was a little uncomfortable about the word ‘abortion,’” Blugis said.
“I think she’s (Harris) the one from Biden’s administration that has spoken out about this the most. You hear a full-throated ‘abortion rights for people, full bodily autonomy,’” Blugis said. “She understands it in a way only another woman, and particularly a woman of color, understands what this means.”
Blugis said that as soon as Harris launched her presidency, Reproductive Justice Maryland saw in increase in people calling in interested in volunteering opportunities to push the ballot initiative.
“Our phones are ringing off the hook. People are going to our info email: ‘We want to volunteer,’” she said. “It’s good problem to have, but my head’s about to explode.”
Trimbath agrees that Harris has made a much stronger vocal commitment to restoring abortion protections under Roe v. Wade than Biden. But he believes there are some pro-reproductive rights voters who may be uncomfortable with the lack of restrictions that the ballot initiative could have on abortions in the state, and they might be swayed to vote against the referendum.
“Biden has the legacy of being seen as a more moderate Democrat, at least while he was in the Senate. That changed, of course, the closer he got to the White House … Kamala Harris has never really had that moderation when it comes to this issue,” he said.
Trimbath said that as Election Day gets closer, anti-abortion organizations will increase messaging efforts against the ballot referendum in hopes of capturing undecided voters.
Rubaskin said it’s not clear whether Harris’s candidacy will sway undecided voters one way or another.
An April poll from Goucher College, in partnership with the Baltimore Banner, said 60% of Maryland voters said a candidate’s position on abortion would be a “major” factor in determining their vote during the primaries. Among Democrats surveyed, 70% said abortion would be a major factor in the primary, compared to 47% of Republicans and independent voters.
“The jury is still out on undecided voters, low information voters, less engaged voters, as to whether this is something that’s going to push them to the polls in a way they weren’t going to prior to the switch,” Rubashkin said.
That said, Rubashkin noted that abortion is a winning ticket item for Democrats, and there was a “there was a lack of enthusiasm” for the election prior to Biden bowing out of the race.
“Data and polling and election results we have indicate that abortion is one of the best, if not, the best issue for Democrats in elections in this current moment,” he said.
“What that means … is that Democrats have gone from their standard bearer and their leader of the party being someone who did not like talking about abortion and could not talk about abortion access with any particular fluency in Joe Biden,” he said, “to a candidate that has made it one of her top priorities to talk about abortion rights and reproductive health care.
“And that in my mind is a significant shift,” he said.
Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.