ACTION NEEDED

Dear Friend of Life,

The Maryland Senate Judiciary Committee will be hearing an important bill THIS Wednesday. SB664, a thinly veiled and so-called "Right to Privacy" amendment would most assuredly enshrine the right to an abortion into the Maryland State Constitution without most constituents even knowing about it.

"But CCRTL, it doesn't look like an abortion amendment to me."

It is! Let me be very brief because this email will have a lot of vital information in it and I don't want to lose you. Firstly, the legality of abortion was decided on a made up constitutional "right to privacy" in Roe vs. Wade. Secondly, in the 1980s, the state of Florida passed a "privacy amendment" by referendum into their state constitution and it was used to strike down pro-life laws.  The General Assembly promised a legislatively referred amendment this year on a woman's right to abortion and here it is.  

What we need from you:

• Email every member of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee and urge an "unfavorable report" on SB664. Use the following formula:
  • Introduce yourself and where you are from.
  • Urge the Senator to oppose SB664 on the grounds that it will enshrine the right to an abortion on demand at any gestation into the MD State Constitution and that you oppose this measure.
  • Make it personal - if you have a personal story that relates to abortion, pregnancy, miscarriage, or the unintended consequences of granting a blanket "right to privacy" - include it in the reasons you oppose.
  • Go to the extremes of the bill - if a woman has a right to privacy concerning pregnancy then there is nothing that would stop 8th and 9th month abortions in our state. We would become a destination for late term abortions; hardly the kind of tourism we want to attract.
  • Thank them for hearing your concerns
  • Sign with name and city of residence.
    
    
• Emails: will.smith@senate.state.md.us; jeff.waldstreicher@senate.state.md.us; jill.carter@senate.state.md.us; Bob.Cassilly@senate.state.md.us; shelly.hettleman@senate.state.md.us; michael.hough@senate.state.md.us; susan.lee@senate.state.md.us; justin.ready@senate.state.md.us; charles.sydnor@senate.state.md.us; chris.west@senate.state.md.us; ronald.young@senate.state.md.us 
• If that is too much work for you, please just take a few moments to fill out the action alert at Maryland Right to Life's page: https://www.mdrtl.org/takeaction.html 
  
  

After that, please consider submitting either written or oral testimony for this bill to Maryland Right to Life, who is taking the lead on this fight. Please email your testimony to Julie (julie@mdrtl.org) NO LATER THAN tomorrow (Tuesday, March 10) at noon. Testimony should include:

• Written Testimony Requirements - please type at the top of testimony.
  • Bill SB664
    Name
    Organization
    Position - Opposed
  • Include your reasons for opposing the bill in a typed response.
• Oral Testimony - Email Julie if you would be willing to give your testimony orally. The hearing is THIS Wednesday, March 11, at noon. You would have to be present and able to stay for the entire hearing.
  ​
  

As always, thank you for your PROMPT action on this alert as you can see it is very time-sensitive.  Also, as email programs are filtering emails that come from distribution programs like Flocknote, please forward this email to 50 Maryland Friends. Ask them to send it to another 50. This is the grassroots; this is how we work.

For LIFE,

Ali Rak
CCRTL, President