Maryland Acts to Ensure Abortions : Legislation: New law protects women’s rights in case Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade.

Gov. William Donald Schaefer on Monday signed a bill that would protect a woman’s right to abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision is overturned.

The Maryland House sent the measure to the governor earlier Monday on a vote of 84 to 52, ending a round of intense lobbying and a yearlong fight.

“I think the House and Senate acted wisely,” Schaefer said. “They voted their conscience.”

Abortion rights advocates hailed the law as a major victory. Abortion foes vowed to open a petition drive to allow voters to reject the law.

A proposed anti-abortion “conscience amendment” to bar lawsuits against people who refuse to refer patients for an abortion was rejected by the House on a vote of 61 to 73.

The bill already contained a provision barring such suits. It also includes a parental notification provision, but one that doctors may opt to ignore.

The Senate approved the bill Feb. 11 on a vote of 29 to 18.

The new law grants adult women unrestricted access to abortions up to the time when a fetus is able to survive outside the womb. After that, abortions may be performed only to protect a woman’s health or when the fetus is deformed.

“By securing a woman’s right to choose, the Maryland Legislature is taking a necessary and vital step toward safeguarding the health and lives of Maryland woman,” said Kate Michelman, director of the National Abortion Rights Action League.

In the hours leading up to the House vote, lobbyists for the Roman Catholic Church and other anti-abortion groups sought support for the “conscience amendment,” which would have sent the measure back to the Senate.

“It will become the most liberal, the most extreme, abortion law in the entire 50 states,” Democratic Delegate Timothy Maloney, an anti-abortion leader, said. “Maryland will stand alone as being the most unregulated state in the nation regarding abortion.”

The bill was at the center of a yearlong fight over attempts by legislators favoring abortion rights to write into Maryland law key elements of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide for the first time. The bill was introduced in response to indications that the high court might reverse that ruling.

Both houses of the Legislature are heavily dominated by Democrats and have tended to vote in favor of abortion rights measures in recent years.