Abortion-rights advocates seek to guarantee protections in R.I. law

Feb. 07--PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Abortion-rights advocates converged on the State House on Tuesday to try to publicly implore the "four white men" who control the state's legislature to allow an "up or down" vote on the right-to-choose protections they seek, in state law, for Rhode Island women.

They named names.

"President [Dominick] Ruggerio, Speaker [Nicholas] Mattiello, Senate Majority Leader [Michael] McCaffrey and House Majority Leader [K. Joseph] Shekarchi refuse to allow an up or down vote by the full Assembly on the Reproductive Health Care Act," said Danika Severino Wynn, who described herself as a midwife, an abortion provider and the health-care manager in Providence for Planned Parenthood of Southern New England.

"Without a vote, Rhode Islanders have no way of truly knowing where their own state senator and state representative stand on the fundamental issue of reproductive freedom. By refusing to allow a vote, we are forced to ask each of them ... What are you afraid of?" she asked, her remarks sparking a standing ovation from the like-minded thinkers who packed the Senate lounge for the Planned Parenthood-organized press conference.

Their calls for action were focused on two bills, one championed in the 75-member House by Rep. Edith Ajelllo, which has 29 sponsors, and another in the 38-member Senate, which has 12 sponsors.

The matching bills say, in part: "Neither the state, nor any of its agencies, or political subdivisions shall: Restrict an individual person from preventing, commencing, continuing, or terminating that individual's pregnancy prior to fetal viability ... [or] terminating that individual's pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to preserve the health or life of that individual."

The legislation also seeks repeal of laws -- still on Rhode Island's books -- that were rendered unenforceable by the landmark U.S. Supreme Court abortion ruling known as Roe v. Wade and subsequent court decisions.

One requires prior notice to a spouse. Another prohibits insurance coverage for an abortion. A third mandates the imprisonment for anyone who attempts to induce a "miscarriage" in a pregnant woman. A fourth says: "human life commences at the instant of conception."

Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island Chapter of the ACLU, recited the history.

"In 1973, immediately after the Roe v. Wade ruling, the [Rhode Island] General Assembly passed a law thumbing its nose at the court decision, and declaring that life begins at conception. In the 1980s, the General Assembly passed a law forcing victims of domestic violence to notify their abusive spouses if they were going to get an abortion ..." He went on.

"The ACLU was able to get all of those laws successfully struck down, and they are now unenforceable, but their continued presence in the general laws is a reminder of the fragility of reproductive choice in this state," he said.

"What is now happening at the federal level is frightening," he said. "To paraphrase the House majority leader, it is time to put women at the table before the Supreme Court puts them on the menu."

But top Assembly leaders made it clear: they see no urgency.

Senate spokesman Greg Pare said: "The balance of jurists on the Supreme Court has not changed, and there does not appear to be a concerted effort in Congress to overturn Roe v. Wade. The language of the legislation was revised and, like any bill, it will go through the normal legislative process."

Mattiello promised a hearing. Shekarchi said: "Abortion has been safe and legal in Rhode Island since the federal Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade. I do not see any imminent threat to overturn that, but I ... certainly understand some people have a very passionate concern, and as the speaker said, we'll listen to that concern through the committee process."

In Rhode Island, the number of abortions dropped by 14 percent from 2011 to 2014, to 3,580, according to previous testimony. Updated information was not immediately available.

Meanwhile, the antiabortion lobby has reintroduced a bill to prohibit what is described as "a dismemberment abortion on a living unborn child," except to save the life of the pregnant woman.

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