Call now: Protect Survivors Seeking Reproductive Healthcare

Ask House & Senate committees to support HB808 / SB859

The Reproductive Health Protection Act states unequivocally that Maryland will not support out-of-state investigations about legal reproductive health care in our state. This bill will protect rape crisis center staff, health care providers, rape survivors and other patients, and the people who support others as they make reproductive health care decisions by limiting their exposure to out of state criminal charges, civil litigation, and administrative penalties. 

Access to abortion care and information about reproductive options are vital to survivors of rape. 

The CDC reports that almost 3 million women in the U.S. experienced Rape-Related Pregnancy (RRP) during their lifetime. A three year longitudinal study of rape-related pregnancy in the U.S., published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (1996, vol. 175, pp. 320-325) found that 5% of rape victims of reproductive age (age 12-45) became pregnant as a result of rape, with the majority of pregnancies in adolescents.  Of these, half terminated the pregnancy.   
 
These survivors need to be able to speak with rape crisis center staff, health care providers, and others without risking civil or criminal prosecution. 

Likewise, rape crisis center staff, health care providers, and others should have confidence that they can do their jobs and provide survivors with a full range of reproductive options without fear of out of state prosecution, civil suits, or losing their Maryland license to practice their profession.

Please ask the Judiciary Committee to support HB808
and
the Judicial Proceedings Committee to support SB859
to protect healthcare providers, rape crisis center staff, support networks, sexual assault survivors, and all individuals seeking reproductive freedom.