Ireland passed it, so can we!!!
On Friday, an overwhelming majority of Irish citizens voted to legalize abortion. This is a historic moment in time. One of the most Catholic Countries in the world mobilized in support of bodily autonomy for women, countering the Church’s stance which is harmful to women.
Here in Rhode Island we have our own battle, slightly different, but one that parallels Ireland’s. In our state we have a Catholic Church whose Bishop holds too much political power and uses this power to strong arm politicians into mandating Catholic doctrine as law. Our democratic political leaders, receive money from Pro-life organizations (as well as the NRA), ignoring the Democratic Party platform around Reproductive Freedom. We have states in our country passing restrictive abortion bills in order to have them legally challenged all the way up to the Supreme Court where they will challenge Roe v Wade, and a president who is a belligerently anti-choice and if given the very real chance, will appoint an anti-choice judge to the bench.
In RI we are asking our legislature to act pro-actively to ensure that if any of these scenarios come to pass, women in Rhode Island will not have to return to the pre-Roe days of back alley and self induced abortions, or have to travel far distances to access health care. We know that when abortion is illegal, women die. We also know that the issue of having access to safe and legal reproductive health care is one of bodily autonomy. Gloria Steinem, at a recent talk in New Bedford stated, “Democracy begins with people having full ownership of their bodies”. It would seem that by denying the very real threats to Roe and making statements about the validity of our cause, that our Democratic Legislative leaders, are less interested in democracy and more interested in controlling women’s bodies.
It feels like an uphill battle to get this bill out of committee and onto the floors for a vote right now. With your help we can pass the Reproductive Health Care Act, protecting, respecting and caring for women.
Just like Ireland.