Nellie Gorbea and Helena Foulkes are engaging in scare mongering and distortion in their political ads and websites regarding the abortion issue.
They promise to champion restoration of abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court decision of Dobbs v. Jackson Health Organization. The fact is that the Dobbs case has zero impact on abortion rights in this State. In Dobbs, the Court held that it has no constitutional authority on the issue, leaving it to each state to decide the parameters of abortion rights. While Roe v. Wade established a trimester paradigm such that a State could regulate abortion rights only during the third trimester, the subsequent case of Casey v. Planned Parenthood empowered states to restrict abortions once the fetus attained viability. In 2019 then Governor Raimondo signed into law the Reproductive Privacy Act which permits unfettered abortions until fetal viability.
On May 4, 2022, the Rhode Island Supreme Court upheld the law. So, abortion rights in Rhode Island are unchanged and all of the hysteria we see in Democrat political ads on the abortion issue is designed to distract voters from the deplorable economy and inflation resulting from the Biden administration’s incompetence and far-left policies and to sway low information voters with high-pitched emotional rhetoric void of any substance.
Both Gorbea and Foulkes are advocating on their respective websites passage of the “Equality in Abortion Coverage Act.” What does it do? It requires taxpayers who are opposed to terminating the lives of innocent pre-born babies to fund abortions performed under the Medicaid program.
This Act is being promoted by Planned Parenthood whose coffers will be further enriched if the Act becomes law. Conscience rights are fundamental to all other rights we have under the Constitution. Without conscience rights, there is no freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, etc. That is why the federal Hyde Amendment prohibits funding abortions through tax revenue.
Yet, Democrats intend to somehow circumvent the Hyde Amendment. Making Rhode Islanders who have genuine moral and/or ethical compunction about aborting pre-born babies subsidize the practice is a bridge way to far.