In 1968, the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill that would require abortions in the state to be performed in a hospital and approved by a hospital review committee. This legislation would later be overturned by the Supreme Court's decision in
Roe v. Wade, which prevented the government from placing restrictions on abortions before
fetal viability. Senate President
Thomas V. Miller Jr., who self-identified as a
pro-life, pledged to remain neutral on the debate but said that he personally favored laws that restricted abortion, adding that if the procedure was necessary, "you've got
Washington, D.C., 35 miles down the road". Pro-choice lawmakers were initially unable to reach the 32 votes required to break the Republican-led filibuster, with the Senate voting 28–18 to continue debate on the bill. Legislators continued to filibuster the bill for eight days before coming to an agreement to couple the abortion rights legislation with another bill that would prevent the bill from going into effect until voters approved of it in a statewide referendum. However, both bills were killed by state delegate
William A. Clark in the House Environmental Matters Committee, who argued in voting against the two bills that action on the House floor would be "chaotic" and force legislators "to go on record on the vote". In that year's
state Senate elections, pro-abortion group Choice PAC primaried four incumbent Democratic state senators who filibustered the abortion rights bill, giving advocates the votes they needed to pass the bill during next year's legislative session. At the start of the 1991 legislative session, Miller promised that the abortion bill would be "the first major issue the Senate takes up" that year. The new bill included a parental notification clause that Miller believed the public would be more accepting of it was to head to a referendum. Anti-abortion state senators conceded that they did not have the votes to hold a filibuster on the bill, but said they would propose amendments to the bill that would outlaw abortions for sex-select reasons, ban abortion services advertising, and requiring parental consent for abortions performed on underage girls. All amendments to the bill were rejected after five and a half hours of debate, and the bill eventually passed and was signed into law by Governor
William Donald Schaefer. Afterwards, anti-abortion activists, led by former Lieutenant Governor
Samuel Bogley and his Right to kNOw Coalition, said they planned to collect enough signatures to petition the law in the 1992 general election. In late June, the coalition submitted 143,622 voter signatures—more than four times the 33,373 valid signatured required—to petition the law, which were certified by the Maryland State Board of Elections in July. ==Campaign==