R.I. House passes bill to guarantee abortion rights

March 08-- Mar. 8--PROVIDENCE -- State lawmakers on Thursday approved legislation to protect the legality of abortion in Rhode Island, no matter what an increasingly conservative U.S. Supreme Court might do to the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

In a major victory for abortion-rights activists, the Rhode Island House of Representatives approved the legislation by a 44-to-30 vote, over the strenuous objections of a host of antiabortion lawmakers and the Roman Catholic Church in the most Catholic state in the nation.

The legislation now goes to the state Senate, where its fate is uncertain and where a similar measure died in 1993 after clearing the House. That was a very different era, when Bill Clinton was president and there was nowhere near the current level of concern among advocates about the erosion of abortion rights.

Jubilant abortion-rights activists hailed the vote, while the Rev. Bernard Healey, the priest-lobbyist for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, issued this statement: "Today's vote in the House to significantly expand abortion in Rhode Island is a grave disappointment. Supporters of this measure have placed political expediency over the protection of the defenseless unborn."

He voiced hope that "the Senate will reflect a deeper respect for innocent life than we saw today."

The counter-view from the Rhode Island Coalition for Reproductive Freedom: "The Trump Administration is radically re-making the federal judiciary, rolling back access to contraception, and undermining comprehensive health care coverage, including reproductive health care. There are at least 15 abortion-related cases just one step away from the Supreme Court. In this environment, it is more important than ever to enact state policies that protect safe, legal abortion."

At its core, the legislation bans government interference in a woman's decision to terminate a pregnancy "prior to fetal viability." The word "viability" is defined in the bill as "that stage of gestation where the attending physician, taking into account the particular facts of the case, has determined that there is a reasonable likelihood of the fetus' sustained survival outside of the womb with or without artificial support."

Abortion in that case is "expressly prohibited except when necessary, in the medical judgment of the physician, to preserve the life or health of that individual."

While advocates of the legislation said it simply "codifies Roe v. Wade" in state law in the face of calls at the federal level to weaken abortion rights, opponents have insisted it is an "extreme" piece legislation that expands the right to an abortion way into the final month of a pregnancy.

"If you never remember anything I ever say to you, remember this," said Rep. Arthur Corvese, D-North Providence. "Roe v. Wade will never be overturned. ... It is just propaganda and pablum that's been fed by one side to media [who] accepts it because they hate this president."

One of the trigger points for the antiabortion lobby is the proposed repeal of Rhode Island's 1970s-era "quick child law," which equates an assault on a pregnant woman that leads to "the willful killing of an unborn quick child" to manslaughter.

The law defines a "quick child" as "an unborn child whose heart is beating, who is experiencing electronically measurable brain waves, who is discernibly moving, and who is so far developed and matured as to be capable of surviving the trauma of birth with the aid of usual medical care and facilities available in this state."

Paul Benjamin Linton, the Chicago-based lawyer advising the Rhode Island Right to Life Committee, says this would repeal "the only protection in state law for an unborn child who is killed in the course of an assault against his or her mother."

Though Cranston police tried to use the law in a high-profile 2015 case, a spokeswoman for current Attorney General Peter Neronha said the 1975 law has never been successfully used in a prosecution in Rhode Island. (Born R. Smith, the man accused in the 2015 case, was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to other charges: first-degree murder and arson.)

On Wednesday night, Neronha assured lawmakers in a letter that repeal of this law -- also referred to as the "fetal homicide" law -- "will not impede this Office's ability to prosecute crimes against pregnant women."

House GOP Leader Blake Filippi nonetheless tried unsuccessfully to block total repeal of the "willful killing of unborn quick child" law, add a 24-hour waiting period to state law, and condition the proposed new abortion-rights law taking effect to the Supreme Court "reversing or overturning" the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

"Herein lies the quandary," Corvese acknowledged. "Are the developing 'group of cells' within the womb life or non-life? I do not need a definitive answer. ... No one can deny that abortion, at the very least, is the snuffing out of a potential human life. ... This alone makes abortion unconscionable."

The debate spanned four and a half hours.

There was no middle ground.

"I believe this statue is unconstitutional on its face," said House Judiciary Chairman Robert Craven, D-North Kingstown, of the so-called "quick child/fetal homicide" law.

"Who are we to decide who is going to live and who is going to die?" said Rep. James McLaughlin, D-Cumberland. "The day after Lent, here we are. Thou shalt not kill. ... [But] the killing field continues."

"Fetal homicide laws are to advance the case for fetal personhood rights," said Rep. Rebecca Kislak, D-Providence.

"Have faith in the women," said Rep. Carol McEntee, D-South Kingstown, of the attempt to add a 24-hour waiting period. "We know what we are doing. It's our bodies. It's our choice. ... Why make the woman go through one more sleepless night?"

"I think it is very deeply disrespectful to suggest that us women, with our tiny little woman brains, need all the extra time that we can possibly have to make the appropriate decision. ... It's not your business. It's our business," said Rep. Moria Walsh, D-Providence.

Among the most controversial amendments: North Smithfield Republican Rep. Brian Newberry's attempt to ban third-trimester abortions based on a pregnant woman's "anguish" over the "the sex of the fetus ... whether the fetus may be born with Down syndrome ... any anticipated or potential sexual preference ... the race of the fetus after birth."

Female lawmakers, including the lead sponsor of the bill -- House Labor Committee Chairwoman Anastasia Williams, D-Providence -- called the proposal "insulting" and "insensitive" to women, "the LGBT community and women of color."

Republican Rep. Michael Chippendale of Foster called it "an attempt to prevent bigotry."

This amendment failed by the widest margin of the night: 57-to-13.

The number of abortions in Rhode Island dropped from 4,820 in 2007 to 2,000 in 2017.

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