Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said a law passed in 2022 covers abortion care for people who qualified for Medicaid because they are pregnant.

Brown’s clarification came Wednesday in response to a Baltimore Banner article that revealed the law passed during the Hogan administration may not have been implemented as it was intended. Lawyers and health care workers reported an obscure and long-standing rule still bars Maryland Medicaid from paying for certain patients’ abortions.

“In the wake of recent questions about whether Maryland’s Medicaid program covers abortion care services for individuals eligible for Medicaid solely because of their pregnancy, the Office of the Attorney General wants to clarify that the Abortion Care Access Act of 2022 covers this group of individuals,” the Democrat said.

Women who qualify for Medicaid only because they are pregnant can have higher incomes than those who traditionally qualify for the health program for low-income residents.

Bill sponsors said they intended for the law to expand abortion care access, including for this group. But abortion clinics and nonprofits have said they’ve had problems getting Maryland Medicaid to cover abortion care.

“We do support a number of clients who have Maryland state Medicaid as their primary insurance and have trouble using their plans as intended to cover an abortion,” said Lynn McCann-Yeh, co-executive director of the Baltimore Abortion Fund, a nonprofit that financially supports women in the state or who travel to Maryland for an abortion.

Since learning about the policy carried over from past administrations, the Moore-Miller administration has begun taking steps to eliminate the exception, a spokesperson said.

The policy dates to the 1970s, when lawmakers first inserted money for abortions into the state budget. Health department officials then turned out a one-page fact sheet limiting how that money could be spent. It doesn’t appear to be written into law or regulation.

The origins of the fact sheet don’t appear widely known inside and outside government. The abortion sheet is one of about a half-dozen put out by the state health department to dictate the technicalities of coverage because federal funds can’t be used. Some of the exclusions could have initially been made to avoid the interference of federal officials, but otherwise how they were chosen isn’t clear.

Maryland is one of 17 states that pays the full cost of abortions covered by Medicaid because the federal government is legally banned from funding abortions except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman is at stake.

The fact sheet appears to exclude another group — those who would have qualified for Medicaid because of their incomes but happened to be pregnant when they enrolled in the program, according to Abigail Burman, an attorney with a background in reproductive rights and state health care regulations.

Brown seems to indicate in his statement that this group already has coverage.

“In addition, to clear up any confusion, for individuals who would have been eligible for Medicaid even if not pregnant, Maryland’s Medicaid program already provided coverage for abortion care services and will, of course, continue to do so,” Brown said.

Burman said the state needs to make clear that all the women will be covered and inform people on medical assistance of their coverage.

“As the Factsheet is currently written, anyone who is pregnant at the time that they enroll in Medicaid is barred from abortion coverage, including people who would otherwise be eligible solely on the basis of income,” she said in an email. “The confusion on this point underscores the importance of removing all restrictions on abortion coverage, consistent with the 2022 law.”