More than 50 current or former state lawmakers supporting Democrat Angela Alsobrooks’ U.S. Senate bid issued a statement Friday recounting their battle with then-Gov. Larry Hogan over abortion access, saying the Republican “cannot be trusted to defend women’s freedoms.”
The statement was the latest attempt by Alsobrooks’ backers to try to undermine Hogan over abortion rights. Hogan, who will face Alsobrooks in the November race to succeed Sen. Ben Cardin, said following the May 14 primary that he supports codifying abortion access in federal law, amending a previous position that Alsobrooks has sought to use against him.
“Any notion from Larry Hogan that he didn’t restrict access to abortion is categorically false,” said the statement. “We know firsthand about Larry Hogan’s record on reproductive freedoms, because we’re the women who fought back when he vetoed legislation to expand access to abortion.”
Friday’s statement was issued by 58 women who are either current or former General Assembly members, including House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones and Comptroller Brooke Lierman.
The statement referenced Hogan’s 2022 veto of legislation allowing nurse practitioners, midwives and other non-physician medical professionals to perform abortions in Maryland. The Democratic supermajority in the General Assembly overrode his veto.
The Hogan campaign, asked for comment, referred a reporter to a statement from two Montgomery County Democrats, former state Del. Luiz Simmons and Rona Kramer, who was Maryland’s Secretary of Aging under Hogan from 2015 to 2023. The statement referenced “partisan attack ads” by the Alsobrooks campaign.
“Anyone who cares about protecting the right to choose would applaud Governor Hogan’s pro-choice stance instead of turning it into just another political weapon in today’s polarized environment,” Simmons’ and Kramer’s statement said.