By JENNIFER McDERMOTT and DAVID A. LIEB, May 27, 2019 || (This story was picked up by the following papers: The Providence Journal, The Concord Monitor, New England Cable News, Fox News, Minnesota Public Radio, Bostonherald.com, Kaiser Health News)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A bill seeking to preserve abortion protections in state law fails to pass a key committee. Lawmakers cite God, church and faith in proclaiming their opposition to it. Abortion-rights groups protest outside a gathering of lawmakers.
What sounds like a legislative fight in a state controlled by anti-abortion Republicans is actually quite different.
The bill seeking to protect abortion rights is in Rhode Island, a state controlled by Democrats at all levels of political power, and it’s stalled.
“This is an issue, I think, where it’s very difficult to draw a line down party lines,” said Democratic state Sen. Erin Lynch Prata, a committee chairwoman who voted in favor of the bill. “It’s a very personal issue to a lot of people.”
