With an increasingly threatening national landscape, supporters need to go on the offensive to preserve abortion rights in states like Rhode Island, Dr. Leana Wen, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said Tuesday.
Wen says the election of more pro-choice female lawmakers in recent election cycles shows that Rhode Islanders supports abortion rights.
In contrast, she said, the national climate is growing increasingly hostile to abortion.
“It’s early in 2019 and already there have been over 250 bills introduced that directly restrict abortion access around the country,” Wen said during a Statehouse news conference. “Fifteen states have introduced abortion bans early in pregnancy at six weeks when most women don’t even know that they’re pregnant.”
A bill that supporters say would codify Roe vs. Wade cleared the Rhode Island House last month, but it has yet to move out of a Senate committee. Opponents say the legislation would expand abortion rights.
The Judiciary Committee appears closely divided, with Sen. Stephen Archambault (D-Smithfield) representing the biggest question mark.
One opponent of the bill, Sen. Lou Raptakis (D-Coventry), a member of the Judiciary Committee, told The Public’s Radio last week that he does not believe there’s an imminent threat to Roe vs. Wade.
But Wen said the landmark court case could potentially be overturned as soon as next year.
“And if that were to happen, then 25 million women – which is one in three women of reproductive age in this country – could be living in states where abortion is banned, outlawed and criminalized,” she said. “And we know the consequence of that – it’s women’s lives.”
It remains unclear for now if the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on the abortion bill ahead of the General Assembly’s mid-April break.
Asked why the committee has not scheduled a vote, Amanda Skinner, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, initially demurred. “I think that this is an important bill,” she said when pressed. “I think people are being thoughtful. I think there are a couple of people who need to be sure that they are representing the voice of their constituents.”
Rep. Anastasia Williams (D-Providence), the House sponsor of the bill to guarantee abortion rights, rallied a group of supporters in the Statehouse library.
“When I’m in a room with a whole bunch of sisters, we got to make noise, we got to make loud noise,” Williams said to the delight of her mostly female audience. “We are a force to be reckoned with …. This is our moment to make the change that needs to be made – period!”
Advocates on both sides of the issue continue to lobby lawmakers, both for and against the abortion bill.
Williams called on supporters of abortion rights to step up with their efforts to contact members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“We know who the wobbly-wobbly-weeble-wobbles are, so we need to straighten them right up and get them to do what they have to do,” Williams said. “We have waited long enough. We’re ready and we’re going to take it by force.”
