Larry Hogan’s commitment to abortion choice: convenient, but not convincing | STAFF COMMENTARY

Republican nominee for U.S. Senate claims to favor abortion rights but Marylanders ought to be skeptical.

If there’s one thing we’ve come to count on from Lawrence Joseph Hogan Jr., the state’s 62nd governor, it’s that he won’t commit to protecting abortion access for Marylanders, let alone the rest of the country.

So you’ll forgive our shock when, after securing the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Ben Cardin, he suddenly said he supports codifying abortion access into federal law. Not only that, he intends to personally cast a vote in favor of  the state’s November ballot question that will add that same reproductive health care right into Maryland’s constitution — a measure the the former governor had previously deemed unnecessary.

Hogan even posted his new-found pro-choice position on X with the line, “As governor, I protected the rights of Maryland women to make their own reproductive health decisions,” like he was the state’s Planned Parenthood chief executive.

Of course, his actual behavior was quite the contrary. As Sun reporter Hannah Gaskill noted, in 2022 he vetoed legislation expanding abortion access. And when the Maryland General Assembly overrode the veto, Hogan withheld funding to train abortion providers — even after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

How did Hogan come to this latest turning point on abortion, then? Was it some awakening from deep in his soul?

Here’s a theory: If the 67-year-old politician has learned anything, he’s figured out how to read a poll. It’s one thing to hem and haw to keep your core Republican base from rising up against you while trying to navigate some middle ground on abortion, it’s quite another to win statewide office in a post-Roe Maryland where polls show about two-thirds of adults believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

The math for a GOP nominee in one of the nation’s most Democratic-leaning states just doesn’t work no matter how personally popular you might have been as governor. Especially not when your opponent is Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, whose pro-abortion rights position is clear and consistent and voter turnout in the fall will likely be huge.

So here’s the question facing voters between now and November: Is Larry Hogan serious about protecting or expanding abortion rights in the Roe v. Wade era? Or, if given the opportunity, will he simply gravitate toward the policy position that most benefits Larry Hogan at the moment? It’s a six-year term. A lot can happen, especially if your vote in the Senate is the one that gives the Republican Party a majority and Donald J. Trump has been returned to the White House. The world, as they say, could be your oyster when you hold such a swing vote. Why would a veteran politician with a certain, shall we say, flexibility on issues let a little thing like a promise to voters get in his way?

Let’s review the history here. When a 35-year-old Larry Hogan was running to be a delegate in the Republican National Convention, he claimed to favor allowing states to restrict abortion access, including a 24-hour waiting period, parental notification for minors and “professional counseling from the doctor about available alternatives.” When his father served as Prince George’s County executive, he supported a ban on abortion in county hospitals. And more recently, Hogan campaigned a few years back for high-profile Georgia Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, apparently not caring about their strongly anti-choice views.

Marylanders who believe in reproductive health care rights might not have cared all that much about where Larry Hogan stood on this issue when they elected him as governor in 2014 and 2018. But since the Supreme Court’s decision two years ago in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning Roe, the circumstances are markedly different. The candidate knows that, and so he’s taken a new tack. Is it real or just a short-term marriage of convenience? That’s for voters to decide.

Baltimore Sun editorial writers offer opinions and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. They operate separately from the newsroom.