From the Maryland Catholic Conference:
Today, Maryland Senate leadership announced the votes aren't there to pass a bill legalizing physician assisted suicide in our state.
In a press conference, Senate President Bill Ferguson said, “We are not going to be taking a vote on the bill this year. It does not appear that we have the votes to pass it in the Senate and so we will not be moving forward.”
The vote was close – one to two votes short on the 11-member Judicial Proceedings Committee that was considering the bill. House leadership already said they would not move ahead unless the Senate did.
Your emails, calls and prayers made the difference.
Senator Will Smith, chair of the committee, said, “I think that as folks got closer to the vote and had more in-depth discussions with their constituents, folks just expressed unreadiness to move on it….[Y]ou have to respect the decisions of the individual senators who are listening to their constituents and listening to their conscience on this issue.”
What does this mean going forward?
While this is great news, he and Senator Ferguson made it clear they expect the bill to come back in the future. And, it’s important we not only prepare for next year, but stay vigilant this year. The session isn’t over until April 8.
There are two key takeaways here.
- The phone calls, emails, lobbying efforts of each and every citizen counts. It certainly did in this case, as the vote was quite close in the Judicial Proceedings Committee. When we first heard of this, I posted about a great lobbying tool. I link now to it for your future use. That brings me to the second takeaway.
- We must always be vigilant regarding our legislators and be ready to act, no matter what else may be going on in life. The anti-life cartel is quite disciplined in that regard, ready to drop everything else and engage in lobbying. We must do no less.
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