Roe v. Wade overturned: RI advocates warn 'a close reality that more rights can be taken'

PROVIDENCE — Women’s groups across Rhode Island decried the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade as a portent of more rights being rolled back in the years ahead.

“I think it’s a foreshadowing of what else could be overturned. It’s a close reality that more rights can be taken away,” said state Sen. Tiara Mack, D-Providence, who pushed unsuccessfully for the passage of the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act, which would have required abortions to be covered by Rhode Island Medicaid and state employee health insurance. The General Assembly adjourned for the year early Friday morning without passing the act.

Mack stressed the importance of the upcoming election cycle to ensure more protections are codified into state law as the Reproductive Privacy Act, which secured the legal right to abortion in Rhode Island, was in 2019.

“We have to have a stronger state legislature. We have to have an openly pro-choice state legislature,” she said.

Abortion laws in New England: How will New England's abortion laws be affected by Roe v. Wade decision?

“We have a race equity issue here. Now we’re fighting for race equity in health care” as poor Rhode Islanders and state workers remain without insurance coverage for abortions, said Jocelyn Foye, director of The Womxn Project.

“We need to deal with this. This is essential to Rhode Islanders,” Foye said. "When someone can't afford an abortion, the right is denied."

Foye criticized the court's 6-3 opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization as an affront to women’s rights.

“We have now seen precedent at a federal level that will affect trans rights, single-sex marriage, contraception,” Foye said.

Nicole Jellinek, chair of the Rhode Island Coalition for Reproductive Freedom, joined other coalition members in urging the General Assembly to pass the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act.

"Denial of the right to bodily autonomy is unacceptable, plain and simple," she said. "We will not stop working to ensure everyone has the right to the vital health care they need, when they need it, free from stigma, shame and criminalization — no matter how long it takes.

Morgan Meneses-Sheets, a national reproductive rights strategist with The Womxn Project, said Friday that the ruling laid groundwork for others that erode other "critical freedoms."

"This is about the right to abortion and the ability to control our bodies, healthcare and future, and, frankly, taking that right away would be bad enough, but let's be clear that overturning Roe and Casey and the flawed reasoning used to do so also threatens other critical freedoms, such as the ability to access contraception and marriage equality," Meneses-Sheets stated in an email. (The 1992 Supreme Court decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey upheld Roe, but determined that state restrictions on abortions were allowed as long as they didn't impose an "undue burden.")

She vowed to continue to fight for protections in Rhode Island, including the passage of measures such as the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act and doing away with a state law requiring women under 18 to to get parental consent for an abortion.

Currently, a quarter of Rhode Islanders receive Medicaid, including 77,000 women of child-bearing age, according to the organization. State employee health plans cover about 32,000 Rhode Islanders, including health professionals, college professors, and students. Abortions in Rhode Island cost an estimated $600 to $800.

Lanette Labinger, a lawyer who consults with the ACLU, Rhode Island, called the high court's decision "every bit as bad as you think it is and more."

The case law behind the court's ruling is based on the rights of women in the 1870s, when, she said, women had no rights.

Beth Cronin, chair of the RI Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, called the ruling a "direct attack on the patient-physician relationship and the practice of medicine.

"By putting physicians in fear of retribution for providing evidence-based, appropriate, lifesaving care, and denying patients the ability to turn to their trusted physicians for essential health care, this decision fundamentally, irreparably, and devastatingly compromises the patient-physician relationship," she said.

House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi said the General Assembly would revisit the Medicaid issue in the coming session.

“I am disheartened by the extreme decision by the US Supreme Court today," Shekarchi said in a statement. "Fortunately because the General Assembly passed the Reproductive Privacy Act in 2019 when I was the House Majority Leader, Roe v. Wade was codified into state statute so the women of Rhode Island continue to be able to make the personal decision to access safe and legal abortion. We will continue the discussion in our next legislative session on a bill that would provide Medicaid funding for the procedure."

The Democratic candidates for governor, Congress and other Democratic leaders issued statements Friday condemning the ruling. Several took aim at  the abortion stance of Allan Fung, a Republican candidate for a U.S House seat.

"I have been crystal clear that I, like many Rhode Islanders, would not support taxpayer funding of abortions, nor late-term or partial birth abortions," Fung said. "I am not running for Congress to change abortion laws; I'm running to lower gas and grocery prices and get products back on the shelves."

Republican candidate for governor Ashley Kalus emailed a statement:

"Let's be clear, today's decision has zero impact on Rhode Islanders. Abortion was codified into state law in 2019, and that will not change. Period. I empathize with women who are afraid for the future of their reproductive health, and it is shameful that we are already seeing politicians use scare tactics to instill fear as a way to gain votes. My focus remains on fighting inflation, growing the economy, and reforming our broken education system."

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Roe v. Wade protests in Rhode Island

The Womxn Project and other abortion-rights advocates planned to stage a rally at 8 p.m. Friday at the State House.

Antiabortion activists hail the Dobbs ruling

The long-awaited ruling was hailed in some camps.

Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence released a statement praising the court.

“The Catholic Church has been clear and consistent in teaching that abortion is a grave moral evil," Tobin stated. " ... The decision is proper for both moral and legal reasons. In recognizing this decision, however, it is abundantly clear that the work on behalf of human life is not over; it has now just moved to a new arena and has assumed new urgency.

“Someday, future generations of Americans will look back in disbelief and shame on our time and wonder how such a 'civilized society’ could allow, and even celebrate the widespread and zealous killing of its own children. They will wonder how we could have strayed so far from the natural law, from widely accepted moral principles, and even from common-sense human decency. When that day comes, I want those future generations to look back and say that the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Providence did the right thing — that we were truly wise and courageous in speaking out against abortion in defending human life." ,” he continued.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI reacts to decision to overturn Roe v. Wade by U.S. Supreme Court