A proposed amendment to the Delaware state constitution that would codify a right to abortion did not receive a vote in the state House of Representatives on June 30, the final day of the legislative calendar.
This marked the end of the two-year General Assembly session, ending the bill’s prospects for passage for now.
The measure passed the Senate in March 2025 by a vote of 15-6, one greater than the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional amendment. Under the Delaware constitution, the bill would have to pass the house by the same majority. It would then have to pass in both houses again after the next general election.
The bill, Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 5, aimed to enshrine a woman’s reproductive freedom into the state constitution. By placing it in the constitution rather than simply state code, the bar to overturn it would be greater than a simple majority. “Reproductive freedom,” according to the legislation, included pregnancy, prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management and infertility care. The state would have been able to regulate abortion care after fetal viability except if the procedure was necessary to protect the life of the mother or her “physical or mental health.”
The House of Representatives was in session from approximately 2:45 p.m. June 30 until 5:40 a.m. July 1 to consider dozens of bills on the last day of the legislative calendar. The most recent General Assembly includes 27 Democrats and 14 Republicans, so if every Democrat voted in favor of the bill, at least one Republican would have had to join them for passage.
A message left for Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown, the speaker of the house and one of the sponsors of SS 1 for SB 5, was not immediately returned. There were six additional sponsors in the house, along with nine house co-sponsors.
Another proposed constitutional amendment that would protect same-sex marriage passed the House of Representatives on June 30 by the minimum majority. Senate Substitute 2 for Senate Bill 100 advanced after receiving 28 affirmative votes. The bill had passed the Senate in June 2025 by a 16-5 vote.
This legislation will have to pass both houses of the General Assembly again in the next session, which runs from 2027-28. If it receives the two-thirds majority in both chambers, it is automatically added to the constitution.
