Abortion bills fire up both sides at R.I. State House
Hundreds of people with strong feelings about abortion descended on the
On one side: Former state lawmaker
"I have decided to come forward after 60 years and tell you this story, which is deeply personal and still disturbing because I was so close to death," Kushner, who later married and had two children, told the lawmakers. "I want you to know what you are dealing with if we lose the protections of Roe v. Wade ... I don't want any woman to ever have to undergo what I went through."
On the other side, lawyer
"Why do this now?" he asked of the legislation up for debate, which would enshrine the protections of the historic 1973 abortion-rights ruling known as Roe v. Wade decision in state law. "There is no present 'danger,' no imminent case pending which presents a so-called 'threat' to a ... Roe v. Wade reversal or even modification ... It is unnecessary," he argued in his written testimony.
Providence Mayor
"What does it mean for the most vulnerable here in Providence if they don't have access," Elorza said. "The reality is that abortions will not stop. Instead what you'll have is resorting to the very harrowing practices of using coat hangers and other unsafe, unhealthy methods to terminate pregnancies."
Added Gonsalves: "Seven months ago, I gave birth to a little human ... I was very lucky though. I was not living in poverty. I had access to health insurance. I felt comfortable where I was professionally. I wasn't a victim of inter-relationship rape or abuse. I had a supportive partner. I didn't have to worry about paying for child care.... Had my circumstances been different, I don't know that I would have made the same choice."
"What bothers me most about the anti-abortion argument is that we seem to assume ... that women just can't be trusted to make decisions for themselves and their bodies and therefore we must legislate for them.... This is sexist ... insulting."
Top-level state officials considered potential candidates for governor in 2022 -- and a spokesman for a third -- also testified in favor of preserving abortion rights in state law: Secretary of State
Arguing the other side, a woman who identified herself as Dr.
The testimony was in many ways a replay of arguments
The hope and the fear among advocates on each side stem from the confirmation in October of
The anti-abortion lobby endorsed bills to prohibit what is described as "a dismemberment abortion on a living unborn child," except to save the life of the pregnant woman, and define the point at which human life begins as the point at which there is a detectable heartbeat, or "flutter." A third seeks to guarantee "the right to life'" at fertilization.
Abortion-rights advocates focused on Rep.
More than half the House -- 39 of the 75 members -- have co-sponsored Ajello's bill, which also seeks to repeal a number of laws ruled unconstitutional and unenforceable.
An alternative bill sponsored by new
The Williams bill does so by keeping -- rather than repealing -- two stricken and currently unenforceable laws. One bans the "willful killing of unborn quick child" and the other, a "partial birth" abortion, which is defined as one in which a doctor "delivers a living human fetus before killing the infant and completing the delivery." (While the state law was struck down, federal law still bans a specific late-term abortion procedure, except when necessary to save the life of the mother.)
The
No votes were taken on any of the five measures; all were held for further study.
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