Uprise RI | Published on January 10, 2022 | By Steve Ahlquist ||| “Anyone who cares about fighting racism and poverty must realize that attacks on abortion and abortion coverage are first and foremost attacks on port women and women of color,” said Dr. Ogechukwu “Oge” Uwanaka, a Medical Practitioner and abortion provider.”
When the Reproductive Privacy Act was passed in 2019, it not only guaranteed a person’s right to abortion in Rhode Island, it also “included the removal of limits on private coverage for abortion that had been unenforced but remained on the books here in Rhode Island,” said Jocelyn Foye, director of the The Womxn Project. “However, that same kind of denial of health benefits for abortion is continuing for state employees as well as people who use Medicaid. This is an unfair and targeted attack on people’s ability to get an abortion simply because of the type of insurance they have.
“We don’t want to live in a state where the money you have in your bank account determines whether you can access health care or not,” said Foye.
Currently, Rhode Island prevents insurers from paying for abortion coverage under the state’s health care plan- which affects about 3000 state employees – and recipients of Medicaid – which affects mostly poor people, disabled people and people of color. Foye’s comments came during an online forum to discuss efforts to repeal these bans.
