You did this. We did this. The more than 40 groups in our Campaign for Equal Abortion Coverage did this. Together, we passed the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act. Just now the Rhode Island Senate passed S32, the House moved it forward and the governor just signed it into law!
“Every one of us should be able to plan our families and our futures and live with love, health, dignity and liberation. That is what this work is about for us and tonight we took a huge step forward with the passage of the EACA. We are so proud of our leadership in this critical victory!” – Jocelyn Foye
We came together in 2019 and were pivotal in the passage of the bill to protect the right to abortion and tonight after years of hard work we halted bans on health coverage for abortion. We have every right to be incredibly proud – and we are!
We are grateful to Senator Bridget Valverde and House Majority Whip Katie Kazarian for their leadership and to every member of the House and Senate who voted yes. Thank you to Rep. Bob Craven, Chair of House Judiciary and Sen. Dawn Euer, Chair of the Senate Judiciary. We thank House Speaker Joe Shekarchi and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio for coming through on their commitments to take action on this important legislation. We are also so very appreciative to Governor McKee not only for signing the bill swiftly into law, but for his ongoing commitment to abortion through words and actions!
We also want to thank former Representative Liana Cassar. After the RPA passed, The Womxn Project held meetings and surveyed our membership and it was clear that what we needed to do was to make the right to abortion real by getting rid of bans on abortion coverage. And when we approached Sen. Valverde and Rep. Cassar that fall, they jumped in to get it done with us.
There have been many hurdles along the way and we have had incredible partners there every step of the way for phonebanks, community events, lobby days, briefings, ARTivist actions, projections, postcarding, hearings, and much more! We could never have gotten this done without the many amazing groups who joined the Campaign for Equal Abortion Coverage and worked so hard to see this day come!
Special shout out to the steering committee for the Campaign for Equal Abortion Coverage! The Womxn Project has had the brilliance, support and hard work of BLM RI PAC, COYOTE RI, the Latino Policy Initiative, LGBTQ Action RI, the South County Huddle, and the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island every step of the way since the campaign was launched in 2022.
There is so much work to continue to end systemic oppression and advance justice. We will also have work to do around implementation of the EACA to ensure that anyone who needs an abortion can get one!
We know that our work to ensure that every Rhode Islander has the right to become a parent when they are ready, to prevent a pregnancy, have a healthy pregnancy and end a pregnancy when they need to, and to raise their children and live with health and dignity demands continued effort. To make sure we can all live happy, empowered lives with liberation is the ongoing call to action – and one we take seriously!
Join us for a virtual debrief and community meeting on Wednesday, June 7th at 6pm! We will look back on the lessons from this campaign and the work ahead. Click here for call-in details.
We will plan a big party – likely many parties for the days ahead. We all deserve to celebrate this win and be proud that we are making a positive difference. We also want to hear your ideas about how we can continue to grow and learn and live our RJ values, the kind of work we should and could be doing and what our communities need. We are in this together!
We WILL keep up the fight for what’s right, but we need your help! Whether you can give $5, $55 or $500, we hope you will invest in The Womxn Project. We identified the need for this bill and we have been leading every day of this campaign. With your help we will keep doing the work that needs to be done!!!
We are so grateful to every one of you who has been in this with us. More amazing work to come, but TONIGHT WE CELEBRATE (and tomorrow there will be some rest). THANK YOU!