Most residents say they support a bill to protect abortion access in Rhode Island law. That’s the finding of a new poll from the Public’s Radio, Providence Journal, and ABC 6. Reporter John Bender talked with News Director Elisabeth Harrison about what it means and why it matters.
Abortion is already legal in Rhode Island. It’s legal across the country in large part because of the 1973 Roe V. Wade Supreme Court ruling. What this poll question asked, is whether that right should be explicitly laid out in the Rhode Island law, which it currently is not.
56 percent of people surveyed supported the idea. More than half of the 538 people questioned. Less than a quarter of the people polled say they oppose a state right to abortion law.
This question comes at a time when abortion rights proponents are worried that President Donald Trump and conservatives in Congress will chip away at abortion access. With a new conservative majority on the Supreme Court, many who support abortion rights see a possibility that Roe V. Wade could be overturned.
In Rhode Island, progressive lawmakers have tried to push for the right to an abortion to become part of state law, but their bill never came to a vote. It was held up by the House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, who’s up for reelection.
Digging into the numbers of the poll, more than half of Protestants and Catholics support or somewhat support this abortion legislation.
And now, we’re seeing quite a few people – including a large number of women – run for office for the first time this year, and this is one of the issues that seems to be inspiring them.
“These are rights that a generation of women has taken for granted, in some respect,” said Bridget Valverde, a political newcomer running for state Senate. “But now, you know especially with the recent appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, we do feel that it is a right that could go away.”
Valverde is running in a district that includes parts of East Greenwich, North Kingstown and Narragansett, and was most recently held by a Republican, Mark Gee. Valverde says she remembers asking Gee where he stood on this issue.
“And he couldn’t give us a straight answer,” said Valverde. “And right then and there I realized that this was not the kind of representation that I wanted in the state Senate.”
Valverde is now running against Dana Gee, Mark Gee’s wife, who is running for the seat as a Republican. Dana Gee says she supports abortion rights, but she does not believe Roe V. Wade is in danger of being overturned right now. She declined to be interviewed for this story.
And while the majority of our elected lawmakers are Democrats, they aren’t necessarily progressives, says URI political science professor Maureen Moakley, a commentator here on the Public’s Radio.
“There’s always been resistance, in this state, because it’s a strong catholic state,” said Moakley. “And] you have a lot of relatively Liberal Democrats, who happen to be pro-life. So it’s always been a tough struggle. I think the picture has changed drastically, and what was the case last session will be very much different in this session.”
Different, Moakley says, because the church may not have the same sway with voters and lawmakers, and the issue is on people’s minds right now because of what’s happening at the federal level and on the Supreme Court. Moakley says she thinks there will be a strong push to let this legislation come to a vote next session.
