Just weeks from the start of voting in Maryland, Democratic congressional candidates hope to capitalize on opposition to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s newly proposed nationwide abortion ban — an issue that can be politically problematic for Republicans in such a blue state.
Maryland Democrats pounced on the Republican senator’s legislation, which would prohibit doctors nationwide from performing abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. His bill, introduced Tuesday, elevated an issue that many analysts believe benefits Democratic candidates by motivating their party’s voters to turn out in support of abortion rights.
“By introducing this legislation, Republicans have made clear that their true objective is the control of women’s health decisions, not the defense of states’ rights,” said Democratic Rep. John Sarbanes, who is running in the 3rd Congressional District that includes Howard County and parts of Anne Arundel and Carroll counties.
The only Republican member of the congressional delegation, Rep. Andy Harris, did not return messages left with his campaign and Capitol Hill office. Harris tweeted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade that the court “got it right.” In 2021, he co-sponsored the “Life at Conception Act,” which would block abortions at all stages of pregnancy without exceptions.
His opponent, former state delegate and 2014 gubernatorial candidate Heather Mizeur (pronounced miz-EER), is hoping for a sizable turnout of abortion rights supporters motivated by the Supreme Court’s June decision, and perhaps by media attention about Graham’s bill.
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