RI State-covered abortion is signed into law by Gov. McKee, Here's what the bills will do
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
PROVIDENCE – While a number of Republican-led states across the country have tightened abortion restrictions in the year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, Rhode Island's Democrat-dominated legislature has moved in the opposite direction.
The General Assembly on Thursday approved – and moments later, Gov. Dan McKee signed into law – legislation allowing state-funded health plans to cover abortions sought by state employees and Medicaid recipients.
The final Senate vote on the House-passed bill was 24 to 14. And the final House vote: 44 to 18.
Sen. Jessica de la Cruz, the leader of the five-member GOP bloc within the 38-member Senate, tried to persuade colleagues to go for an alternative to state-funded abortions that allowed individuals to choose, on their own, whether to make a voluntary income-tax deduction to a "Medicaid and state employee abortion fund."
"The consensus has maintained that regardless of one's view on the legality or appropriateness of abortion, taxpayers should not be forced or encouraged to pay for abortion," she argued.
But her proposal went nowhere.
"I've heard a lot of sad stories about women who weren't able to procure abortions," she said, suggesting this alternative: "If they can't afford it, I suggest perhaps asking Planned Parenthood. Instead of spending money on lobbying, they could give that money to women who need abortions and pay for them."
More: Abortion coverage for RI state workers, Medicaid wins Senate committee approval by one vote
Democrat McKee included $592,405 in his proposed 2023-24 budget to provide abortion coverage for an estimated 80,000 women of child-bearing age enrolled in Medicaid and another $29,500 to add abortion coverage to the state employee health insurance plan for an estimated 6,500 women.
What both sides are saying
Advocates have called the move a matter of "equality in abortion coverage" in a state where abortion rights have been guaranteed since the 2019 passage of the so-called "Reproductive Privacy Act" and yet state-funded health insurance plans do not cover it.
Low-income women on Medicaid may have the legal right, but don't have the money, Dr. Anna Whelan told the lawmakers during an earlier hearing.
"So it can be legal for a patient to have received an abortion, but if they are unable to because they cannot afford it, then it is something ... they cannot do,'' said the doctor, citing the difficulties faced by several of her own patients.
But opponents in the most Catholic state in the nation have called it immoral to force anyone opposed to abortion to pay for it.
"We need to save babies, not kill them. NO! to taxpayer funded abortion. It will make a difference come reelection time!" warned David Aucoin, identifying himself as president of the Rhode Island Family Institute, in a letter to the lawmakers in advance of an earlier hearing.
But the Rhode Island "Right-to-Life" lobby not only lost the 2019 legislative war over abortion rights, it antagonized one-time allies in the Senate, including Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, whom they blamed for not stopping the legislation, even though he voted against it
In exchange for a $25 donation, the state's leading anti-abortion group offered "ANYONE but Senate President Dominick Ruggerio" lawn signs "so you can [also] help us call out this pro-life pretender and traitor!"
Earlier this week, Ruggerio cast the deciding vote when the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 7 to 6 to advance the abortion-coverage bill to the full Senate for a vote.
His explanation: “I view this legislation as a simple insurance equity measure. The bottom line for me is that I want state employees and individuals on Medicaid to have access to the same health insurance benefits as all other Rhode Islanders.”
How the two bills moved through the House and Senate
Two identical bills were on the Senate's calendar. Both passed.
The second bill is an identical piece of legislation – co-sponsored by 19 of the current 37 senators, including the lead sponsor, Sen. Bridget Valverde – that will immediately bounce from the Senate over to the House if approved as expected.
"Medicaid patients and state workers deserve to have the same access to care as people with private-pay health insurance," Valverde told colleagues Thursday evening. "With passage of this bill, doctors will no longer have to inform their low-income patients that their health insurance won't cover their abortion. Patients will no longer have to [forgo] ... essential care or go without it entirely."
House spokesman Larry Berman advised the members of the House in advance of the game plan for Thursday night: a final House vote after the anticipated Senate approval of the Senate's own version of the so-called "Equality in Abortion Coverage Act" known as EACA.
What does this legislation do?
At its core, the legislation first introduced in 2020 allows state funding for women on Medicaid to receive abortions.
It would also repeal a current prohibition on the state funding of any health insurance plan that provides state workers with "coverage for induced abortions ... except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term, or where the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest."
De la Cruz, the Senate minority leader, issued a statement ahead of the Senate committee vote anticipating defeat for the anti-abortion side, but suggesting the Rhode Island Constitution may provide a legal argument against whatever passes.
She cited wording in the Constitution that is not on its face a prohibition but says: "Nothing in this section shall be construed to grant or secure any right relating to abortion or the funding thereof."
Although "news of the likely passage of taxpayer-funded abortion in Rhode Island may be disheartening, we should not consider this struggle as a lost cause. There is always hope, and we must remain committed to the fight," she wrote.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Abortion coverage for RI state employees, Medicaid clears General Assembly, signed into law
