If federal Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. is confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, opponents of abortion have high hopes that he will help craft decisions that outlaw or significantly limit the procedure.
But even if the court eventually rules that the Constitution does not protect a woman's right to an abortion, the procedure will likely remain readily available in Maryland.
Most legal scholars agree that if the court overturns Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 abortion decision, each state would have the authority to decide whether the procedure is legal. Before Roe, states regulated abortion.
Maryland strongly protects the right to abortion, relying in part on a 1991 state law, upheld in a 1992 referendum, that explicitly endorsed Roe v. Wade.
That measure - along with a General Assembly dominated by Democrats who regularly block attempts to enact restrictions - has given Maryland women greater access to abortion than women in most other states.
"Maryland has been one of the leaders in protecting reproductive rights," says John Nugent, the director of Planned Parenthood of Maryland.
Abortion opponents generally agree with this assessment. "There are very few restrictions to abortion in Maryland," says Angela Martin, president of Maryland Right to Life, a prominent state anti-abortion group.
In this, Maryland is an anomaly. Over the past decade, many states have passed laws that restrict access to abortion. In some, women seeking an abortion face a 24-hour waiting period. In others, lawmakers limit certain abortion procedures to hospitals. Thirty-three states restrict or outlaw public funding for poor women's abortions.
Maryland has taken the opposite approach. In 2005, the National Abortion Rights Action League report card gave the state an A, an especially high rating, considering that the average grade nationally is a D-minus. Ariana Brannigan Kelly, executive director of NARAL's Maryland chapter, calls the state "one of the top 10" in terms of abortion access.
About 20 clinics that provide abortions operate around Maryland, about the same number as a decade ago. Most are in the Baltimore area and Washington suburbs. In addition, private doctors and some hospitals provide the procedure.
More than 34,000 women had abortions in Maryland in 2000, according to a study conducted three years ago by the Guttmacher Institute, a private nonprofit institution that does research on reproductive policy. The average cost for a first-trimester abortion - the simplest procedure - is typically $250 to $350.
A little more than 3 percent of Maryland women of childbearing age had an abortion that year, slightly higher than the national average of 2 percent, according to the Guttmacher study.
There are no more recent statistics for Maryland because the state does not require doctors, clinics and hospitals to report abortions. Abortion rights advocates say such reporting would allow anti-abortion groups to target providers, and, so far, anti-abortion legislators have failed in attempts to require it.
Maryland does keep track of abortions that are paid for by state Medicaid funds. In 2004, the state paid for 4,481 abortions for poor women, at a cost of $2.4 million. That was an increase of 12 percent over the number of abortions it funded in 2003. However, it is not clear that the overall abortion rate has also risen.
But numbers don't tell the whole story. Compared with most states, Maryland has few legal restrictions on abortion until late in pregnancy. Women who want an abortion here can get one the same day. Many states, including Virginia and Pennsylvania, require that women wait 24 hours.
Maryland also has relatively few restrictions on abortions later in pregnancy. Some states, such as Virginia, have attempted to limit those procedures. Maryland law makes abortion legal until a fetus is viable - meaning until it can survive outside the womb.
Most doctors interpret viability as the 24th week of pregnancy. But the law also waives the viability restriction if a woman's life is in danger, or if the fetus has serious birth defects. Such cases are extremely rare, according to Dr. Carole Meyers, the medical director of Planned Parenthood of Maryland, which operates clinics in Baltimore and Annapolis.
Also, unlike many states, Maryland does not require women under the age of 18 to get parental consent for an abortion. Doctors must inform parents if a minor has an abortion, but they can waive this requirement if they believe the notification endangers the patient.
Maryland also places no special requirements on clinics and providers. Abortion rights groups call these rules TRAP laws, for Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers. According to NARAL, 34 states have enacted them.
These laws can create difficulties and expenses for providers. Last year, for example, Missouri's legislature passed a law requiring doctors at a clinic to have privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. As a result, one of the state's four remaining clinics was forced to close.
