Roe V. Wade has been the law of the land for more than four decades, but it is under assault in red states across the nation. As the months dwindle towards the 2020 presidential primaries, this cultural wedge issue is only going to get more attention.
Last week, Rhode Island’s State Senate Judiciary Committee decided by the slimmest of margins –one vote—to reject one version of legislation designed to protect abortion rights in Rhode Island in the event the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the 1973 Roe decision that legalized the medical procedure across the country.
Defeat of the abortion measure was cheered by abortion opponents and jeered by supporters of abortion rights. Hundreds of chanting, placard-waving advocates on both sides thronged the Statehouse. Abortion rights supporters even occupied the Senate chambers after the measure went down.
The anti-abortion movement has waxed and waned over the years. Now it is back louder than ever. President Donald Trump has been aggressively courting anti-abortion voters in the run up to 2020. Unlike other Republicans who have often paid lip service to the anti-abortion crowd, Trump has given this movement more traction than it has had in years.
The president’s appointments, confirmed by the Republican US Senate, to the high court have renewed the legal fight against Roe. States such as Georgia and Alabama have approved draconian measures that virtually ban all abortions. These and other red state restrictions are headed to federal courts that have been stacked by the president and the Senate with conservatives. Some, including Leah Litman, professor of law at the University of California Irvine, say the new judges and laws are designed to allow the courts to chip away at abortion rights even if the high court doesn’t explicitly overturn Roe.
Legal scholars and political experts say the likely impact of the new abortion restrictions will be to allow states more authority to regulate, or even eliminate, abortion rights. The result would be a national quilt-work of abortion laws, with the procedure being largely unavailable in red states and available only in blue states.
This wouldn’t pose anything much more than inconvenience to women who have become the face of the abortion rights movement – educated professional women of means. They could travel and get safe abortions. That wouldn’t be the case for the poor.
In Rhode Island, the House easily approved legislation codifying the Roe standard into state law. But it seems the bill stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee because anti-abortion activists refuse to allow the Roe standard of allowing a third trimester abortion to preserve the health of the mother to become part of state law.
Anti-abortion activists claim they are focused on stopping so-called late term abortions, which are extremely rare. But the truth is they want to ban all abortions. Anti-abortion activists have no use for the Roe decision, which they have tried to scuttle for more than 40 years.
What’s interesting here is that the number of abortions has dropped dramatically, both nationally and in Rhode Island. In 2000, there were 4,200 abortions in Rhode Island, a number that dropped to 2,300 by 2014. Yet both sides of a topic that cuts deeply into religion and culture are as divided as ever.
Despite decades of rhetoric, sober heads have failed to come up with a compromise.
Rhode Island senators may offer the last sliver of hope for some sort of a deal.
If a bill codifying Roe made it to the Senate floor it likely would pass, says Sen. Josh Miller, a veteran Cranston Democrat who supports abortion rights.
Miller and others say that talks on a deal are taking place privately. And Statehouse sources say that Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, a North Providence Democrat and abortion opponent, has no stomach for risking his leadership on this issue. Failure to approve a state abortion rights law would probably spark a series of primaries against senators who support Ruggerio.
As this issue rages nationally, wouldn’t it be nice for Rhode Island lawmakers to come up with legislation that preserves abortion rights without appearing to give state imprimatur to late-term abortions?
Scott MacKay’s commentary can be heard every Monday morning at 6:45 and 8:45 and at 5:44 in the afternoon.
