Special Coverage: More Reactions to High Court's Ruling on Abortion

Today on Midday, we continue WYPR's Special Coverage of the historic Supreme Court ruling overturning 50 years of constitutional protections for abortion rights.

Writing for the High Court majority that overturned Roe v Wade in a 6-3 decision announced Friday, Justice Samuel Alito said that the decision “returns the authority to regulate abortion to the people” meaning states can decide whether or not abortions will be allowed. A poll released this morning by PBS shows 56% of Americans oppose the ruling.

In his noon-hour remarks from the White House on Friday, President Biden said the only way to restore abortion rights is to codify the provisions of Roe into law. The current Congress will not make that happen. Here in Maryland, women will have access to abortion, but Governor Larry Hogan is refusing to release money approved by the legislature to expand the number of people who can perform abortions.

Initially, the General Assembly wrote the law so that training would begin in July of 2023. A new urgency has arisen to begin training these providers because of the SCOTUS decision, and legislators want to start next month instead of next year, but the Governor isn’t budging.

Among Tom's guests today are Baltimore City Councilwoman Phylicia Porter, who represents the 10th District in South Baltimore; Professor Mary Fissell, a medical historian at Johns Hopkins University; and Miriam Burg, a Rabbi and Jewish educator who works with pregnant women.

We were told that Catholic Archbishop William Lori would be able to join us today as well, but this morning, his spokesperson said he would not be available. We hope to have him on at another time.

But we begin with Karen J. Nelson, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Maryland, a major provider of reproductive health services across the state. Like our other guests, Ms. Nelson joins us on Zoom…

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