Maryland Tries to End Abortion Bill Filibuster

State Senate leaders held hourly quorum calls Saturday in an effort to break a filibuster against legislation that would guarantee abortions remain widely available in Maryland.

By requiring the entire 47-member Senate to check in each hour beginning at noon for a quorum call, Senate President Thomas V. (Mike) Miller turned what one senator had called a “limousine filibuster” into a far more uncomfortable experience for lawmakers on both sides of the issue.

Since the Senate’s minority of anti-abortion members began “extended debate” Thursday in an effort to weaken or kill the abortion bill, the leadership had spread out required appearances in the Senate chamber and allowed senators to leave the Statehouse to sleep or take care of other business.

The hourly quorum calls Saturday forced senators to loiter near the chamber, raising the pressure for a settlement allowing the senators to go home.

It would require 32 votes, or two-thirds of the Senate membership, to invoke cloture, end the debate and allow passage of the bill on majority vote. Abortion rights senators had 29 votes by Saturday, but acknowledged the next three would be the hardest to get.

The debate, which had recessed early Saturday after an all-evening session Friday, resumed Saturday morning and the first quorum call was held at noon.

“The longer it goes on, the more likely something will happen,” said Sen. Howard Denis, a Republican from suburban Washington who was among the senators switching sides and voting to end debate. “There’s a lot of psychological forces at work.”