By Rep. Edith H. Ajello and Sen. Gayle L. Goldin in
Rhode Island’s Future
During
the strange 2016 presidential election cycle, President Donald Trump clearly
displayed his attitude toward women. He bragged about his own sexually
predatory behavior and objectification of women.
Trump
stated that women should be “punished” for having abortions and, repeatedly,
vowed to nominate Supreme Court justices who will strike down Roe v. Wade and
send the issue of the legality of abortion back to the states. While Trump made
many empty promises on the campaign trail, this is one he is keeping.
Trump
wasted no time in office re-instating the Mexico City Rule, or global gag
order, which prohibits US funding from supporting non-governmental
organizations around the world that provide essential health care services
simply because they also provide abortions.
Unlike
his Republican predecessors, Trump went further, putting billions of dollars at
risk for organizations that provide services to people with HIV/AIDS, malaria,
and even care for children.
He
also nominated an opponent of reproductive freedom to the Supreme Court and
several of his cabinet nominees have long histories of anti-abortion stances.
In
recent years, Republican controlled state legislatures have passed law after
law in an attempt to erode the protections established by Roe v. Wade in 1973.
Those
laws don’t only jeopardize women in those states, they also feed the pipeline
of cases aimed at the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to nullify existing
protections for reproductive privacy.
With
Republican, anti-women majorities in the US House and Senate, women’s autonomy
over their own bodies is at risk.
Since
1973, abortion has been legal in Rhode Island because of the decision in Roe v.
Wade. Yet, Rhode Island laws stating that life begins at conception and that it
is a criminal act to end that life remain on the books even though those laws
have been held unconstitutional.
That’s
why, in early February, we introduced the Reproductive Health Care Act of
2017 (SB 274 and HB 5343),
with more than 40 of our colleagues.
This or similar legislation has been introduced in the Rhode Island General Assembly regularly for decades.
But,
the election of an avowedly anti-choice president, strong Republican majorities
in both chambers of the US Congress who are opposed to reproductive
freedom/privacy, and an 8 member split Supreme Court, make this effort much
more urgent.
Our
bills will ensure abortion remains safe and legal in Rhode Island by codifying
the central tenet of Roe v. Wade: that the State shall not interfere with a
woman’s right to prevent, commence, continue or terminate a pregnancy before
fetal viability.
Even
though this bill is fundamentally necessary to ensure that the existing law
established in Roe v. Wade remains intact in Rhode Island, our opponents have spread misinformation and labeled the bill
“extreme.”
Here
are the facts: our legislation does not remove the state law requiring parental
consent for minors. So called partial birth abortions are prohibited under
federal law.
The
Rhode Island Department of Health would continue to have authority and
responsibility for the licensing and regulating of health care providers and
facilities, which is crucial to keeping abortion safe.
A
woman’s medical decisions must remain between herself and her medical provider.
That right to privacy about one’s own body is exactly what we seek to protect
with our legislation.
Our
bill will ensure that the nearly half century old protections established by
the US Supreme Court will remain the status quo in Rhode Island, no matter who
might be in the White House, the Capitol Building, or on the Supreme Court.
Rep.
Edith H. Ajello is a Democrat who represents District 1 in Providence. Sen.
Gayle Goldin is a Democrat who represents District 3 in Providence.