Rhode Island passes abortion ‘up until birth’ law

New York Democrats shocked people and made the headlines for passing the most radical abortion bill in U.S. history, ending the state’s limitation on abortion, allowing women to have abortions up until birth, removing the penal code. Now Rhode Island will allow abortion up until birth if deemed “necessary for the health or life of the mother,” The Associated Press reports.

photo Ivon19 via wikimedia commons

“The new law says the state will not restrict the right to an abortion prior to fetal viability or afterward if an abortion is necessary for the health or life of the mother,” AP reports. “It repeals older state abortion laws deemed unconstitutional by the courts. The bill was approved Wednesday in the Senate 21 to 17 after two hours of debate, then in the House 45 to 29 after a half hour debate.”

“Fundamentally this bill is about health care,” Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo said Wednesday when she signed the abortion bill into law. “It’s about protecting and providing access to health care for all the women of Rhode Island.”

Despite the significant impact of the bill’s legalization of abortion until birth if the “health” of the mother is deemed at risk, Rhode Island Democrats have played down the law, insisting it simply “preserves the status quo” by “codifying Roe v. Wade.”

“It’s a difficult issue and there are good and principled people on both sides of the issue,” said Raimondo, the Providence Journal reports. “But in light of all the uncertainty in Washington, and frankly, around the country in many other states, there is great deal of anxiety that … a woman’s right to access reproductive health care is in danger. … The bill I am about to sign codifies Roe v. Wade. It preserves the status quo … that has existed in this state for [close to] 50 years.”

Democratic Sen. Erin Lynch Prata stressed that the bill is intended to “protect” the citizens of the state and echoed the governor’s talking point on Roe v. Wade. “This bill is this chamber and this legislature performing our responsibility to the citizens of the state of Rhode Island. It is our responsibility to protect our citizens. We are not putting our citizens in the hands of a changing Supreme Court,” said Lynch, in comments reported by AP.