Advocates support R.I. push to ensure abortion rights

Providence Journal (RI)

April 04--PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A group of Rhode Island clergy from outside the Catholic Church went to the State House on Tuesday to again plead with lawmakers to protect abortion rights against a potential reversal by a reconstituted U.S. Supreme Court in the Trump era.

With a hearing on this year's legislation to keep abortion "safe and legal" expected as early as next week, members of a group calling itself the "Rhode Island Religious Coalition for Reproductive Freedom" gathered in the State House library to take their turns at the microphone.

The Rev. Gene Dyszlewski, pastor of the Lime Rock Baptist Church in Lincoln, stated the perceived urgency: "Given the chaos in Washington and the politicization of the courts, we must act to protect the rights of the women of Rhode Island."

The speakers focused their comments on the House and Senate versions of the proposed "Reproductive Health Care Act of 2018," also known as H7340 and S2163, and companion bills to guarantee that health insurers, and Medicaid, pay for FDA-approved contraception, contraception counseling and voluntary sterilization.

The legislation opens with this statement: "Neither the state, nor any of its agencies, or political subdivisions shall restrict an individual person from preventing, commencing, continuing, or terminating [a] pregnancy prior to fetal viability."

"It is a sad fact of history that women have been economically, politically and legally disadvantaged," said Mr. Dyszlewski. He said the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade "helped change that," by giving women control they did not have before over their own lives and bodies.

"Because decisions about parenting are so important, we believe that each woman should be able to decide if and when to have a child and how many children she can reasonably care for," he said.

The Rev. David L. Helfer, representing the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of South County, spoke from a different perspective: "As a religious professional, I recognize the need for the dignity inherent in choice, as codified in Roe vs. Wade. As a queer and trans individual, I recognize here the intention of others to constrain the freedoms of those they deem unable to do so for themselves."

The Rev. David Ames, a retired Episcopal priest, looked back at his history, prior to Roe v. Wade, as a member of the Clergy Consultation Service, a national organization founded in the late 1960s in New York City.

"Its purpose was to provide counseling and support for women struggling with problem pregnancies. At the time abortion was illegal. ... It was unsafe and rates of morbidity and mortality were high. Self-induced abortions among others led to sepsis and often death. With the passage of Roe vs. Wade, women had the right to choose and, as a result, pregnancy terminations could be accomplished in medically safe clinics under the care of physicians and other health-care personnel."

The coalition describes itself as "an inter-faith organization working to challenge systems of oppression and remove the multiple barriers that impede individuals -- particularly those in marginalized communities -- from accessing comprehensive and respectful reproductive health care."

The legislation faces fierce opposition from some quarters.

Earlier this winter, when the reworked abortion-rights legislation was introduced, Barth Bracy, the Right to Life Committee's executive director, said it "remains seriously misleading to characterize this bill as merely 'placing an abortion-rights guarantee in state law.'"

His view: "It goes way beyond that and would make Rhode Island a haven for abortionists with virtually unrestricted and unregulated taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand right up to the moment of birth -- including partial-birth abortions and late-term dismemberment abortions on pain-capable unborn children whose organs and body parts might then be harvested and sold as is presently being investigated by the Justice Department."

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