Coalition calls on McKee to sign executive order expanding abortion coverage

PROVIDENCE — More than 20 advocacy groups – from the League of Women Voters to the Black Lives Matter Rhode Island PAC to Amnesty International – are urging Gov. Dan McKee to go the next step in guaranteeing access to an abortion in Rhode island.

The groups are asking McKee to issue an executive order that would do what Rhode Island legislators were unwilling to do in this election year: repeal the law that bans state-funded abortion coverage for state employees and Medicaid recipients.

McKee does not believe he has the legal authority to do so.

“The Governor continues to be in full support of the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act that would protect access to reproductive health care," spokesman Matt Sheaff said Friday.

However, "oOur legal office has concluded that we cannot use an executive order to reverse the expressed prohibitions codified in statute. The best course of action is for the General Assembly to pass the bill and send it to the Governor’s desk for signature next session.”

The advocacy groups seeking an executive order argue he does have the authority to act on his own, in an open letter to him this week.

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To bolster their case, they cited multiple executive orders McKee and his predecessor, fellow Democrat Gina Raimondo, issued during the pandemic, including one that barred insurance carriers from imposing limitations on the delivery of telehealth services.

McKee spokesman Matt Sheaff issued the statement, in response to a Journal inquiry, about his stance: "The Governor continues to be in full support of the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act that would protect access to reproductive health care and we are reviewing this request."

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The coalition includes the Latino Policy Institute, the Rhode Island Academy of Family Physicians, RI NOW, the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Rhode Island Democratic Women’s Caucus among others.

The groups thanked McKee for issuing an executive order earlier this month directing state agencies not to cooperate with investigations launched by other states of Rhode Islanders who help someone get an abortion.

The order came in response to the U.S. Supreme Court last month overturning the Roe v. Wade decision that protected the right to abortion, and subsequent moves by states across the country to severely limit or ban abortions.

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“We are grateful that the governor heeded the call to action to protect people who provide or seek abortions and those who support people in obtaining care from being harmed by laws from other states that seek to criminalize care," the R.I coalition said in a statement. "This was an important step."

But he needs to "do more to ensure access to abortion in this critical moment," the group said.

Specifically, the groups urged McKee to sign a second executive order to direct the state employee health plan and the state Medicaid program to include health coverage for abortion.

"Given that right now in this state we have a system where people with private insurance have coverage for a health service protected by state law, but those who use public benefits do not, this seems like another time to address parity and timely access to needed care," they wrote.

Legislation to repeal the ban was introduced in the House and the Senate during the session that ended in June, but it died for lack of action.

"This coverage has been found to be cost neutral, so there is no economic reason for withholding these benefits – and as has been stated in many instances, there is very real harm in taking away insurance coverage for abortion," the groups argued.

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The group cited the finding of a recent study "that folks who are turned away and went on to give birth experienced an increase in household poverty lasting at least four years relative to those who received an abortion.

"People who are turned away from getting an abortion are [also] more likely to stay in contact with a violent partner. They are also more likely to raise the resulting child alone," according to the study by Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, based at the University of California San Francisco.

"Don’t tell us to wait for next year," the coalition wrote. "No more waiting. It is time to halt the bans on health coverage and direct public health programs to include coverage for abortion. We must act urgently as if our lives depend on it, because they do.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI abortion: Activist groups call on McKee to sign executive order