PROVIDENCE — A week of parliamentary maneuvering and political intrigue culminated in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee voting overwhelmingly on a party-line vote Thursday night to approve a bill that would expand abortion access in Rhode Island.
That committee, which voted 8-2 in favor of the bill, took action a couple of days after Sen. Erin Lynch Prata, chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, moved the legislation out of her committee when it appeared the bill was about to be defeated.
Prata took that action Tuesday night when members of the Senate Republican leadership, who have the right to vote in any committee, showed up at the scheduled SJC hearing to vote against the bill. Republicans cried foul and accused Prata of breaking Senate rules while Democrats said she was in her right as chairwoman to move the bill out of her committee.
Either way, the abortion bill, filed by State Rep. Anastasia P. Williams, D-Providence, now moves to the full Senate, which is expected to vote on the bill next Tuesday. The bill will also return to the House Judiciary Committee, which approved an earlier version of the bill in March.
The wording of William’s legislation allows abortions to be performed after a fetus is viable outside the womb — usually around the 22nd week of pregnancy — in cases where the physician determines it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother. The bill also specifically prohibits government interference in a woman’s decision to have an abortion “prior to fetal viability.”
Supporters said legislation such as Williams’ bill would simply preserve or codify in Rhode Island state law what the U.S. Supreme Court currently permits in the event that the high court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade is ever overturned.
However, local and national pro-life advocates have been warning for months that the legislation will pave the way for late-term abortions, for virtually any reason, in Rhode Island. They compare the local bill to similar abortion legislation the New York State Assembly passed earlier this year.
In an action alert posted on its website, the Rhode Island Right to Life Committee notified its followers that the “extreme New York-style abortion-expansion bill” had passed the HHS committee after “extraordinary interventions by Senate Leadership.”
The Rhode Island Right to Life Committee, on its Facebook page, also criticized the “very shameful display of arrogance and ignorance” of Prata, accusing her of “machinations and violations of the rules in pursuit of the extreme abortion agenda.”
The pro-choice advocates who turned out to the Rhode Island State House to watch the committee proceedings erupted in cheers when the 8-2 vote was tallied. The two no-votes were cast by Republicans Thomas J. Paolino and Elaine Morgan, the Senate minority whip.
Voting for the bill were Senators Elizabeth Crowley, Gayle Goldin, Valarie Lawson, Miller, Nesselbush, Adam Satchell and James Sheehan.
Crowley, a Central Falls Democrat who describes herself as a pro-life Catholic, said Thursday night that she did not believe, after listening to arguments from both sides, that the bill would allow abortions up until the ninth month of pregnancy.
“This is a very important matter that needs to go to the full Senate so that 38 senators can say yes or no, whatever is in their hearts,” Crowley said in explaining her yes vote to advance the bill out of committee.
The dozens of pro-life activists, most of them wearing light blue T-shirts and waving anti-abortion signs, were left bitterly disappointed.
“I think it’s typical Rhode Island politics… I don’t think the general population in Rhode Island supports late-term abortions, and how we’re passing this law, I have no idea,” said David Mitchell of the Little Flower Home, a Catholic apostolate that supports expectant mothers.
“I think it’s horrible. I think it’s absolutely insane,” said Lisa French, a Cranston resident who testified against the abortion bill earlier this year. She waited overnight in the Statehouse to testify around 6 a.m. in that marathon hearing.
“I was born (premature) at 6 ½ months. I was not breathing when I was born. My mother thought she had delivered a still-born baby,” French said. “How dare anyone say that I was not a human being because I didn’t take a breath. We as a nation, by passing this garbage, are calling down the judgement of God. He does not sleep. He will judge us. We will be held accountable.”
