FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Jocelyn Foye,
Executive Director, The Womxn Project
[email protected]
w. 401-400-0061
Statement: Activists Demand Swift Passage of Abortion Access Bill
Advocates from across the state are turning out at the State House to push for an end to bans on health coverage for abortion and to halt harmful anti-abortion bills
[Providence, RI] – Statement from The Womxn Project as advocates ready for a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee to support the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act and to oppose a set of copycat anti-abortion bills:
“Every person in our state should be able to make personal decisions, have access to affordable health services, maintain their bodily autonomy, and live with dignity. That is our demand as activists from across the state come together to show support for the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act (S32).
The House voted resoundingly in support of the EACA. It is time for the Senate to act to ensure that the right we worked hard to pass is not kept from people based on how much money or what type of health insurance they have. Abortion bans impact personal decisions about pregnancy and parenting. They are harmful, discriminatory and just plain wrong.
Self-determination should not be a privilege. It should be a right. That is why folks from around the state, including a group of health professionals will also be at the State House to urge lawmakers to stop a set of harmful bills that are being pushed to try to interfere with how abortion care is provided.
Senate Bills 347, 392, 397 and 298, harmful copycat bills that denigrate abortion providers or try to put up medically unnecessary requirements on providing abortion care that do NOT improve safety. Surgical abortion is one of the safest types of medical procedures. Complications from having a first-trimester aspiration abortion are considerably less frequent and less serious than those associated with giving birth and in comparison to a number of other outpatient procedures. Early medical abortion using pills to end a pregnancy has a similar safety profile. These bills are about making it harder to provide or to take away options.
Abortion providers are trained and compassionate professionals doing their best to help patients in spite of frequent harassment and even violence. These bills are meant to disparage them and to lay the groundwork to take away all access to abortion and we know who that harms most – people who are pushed to the margins who are already struggling to obtain affordable, quality health services. Please, do not allow these bills to become law.
Closing gaps in access to abortion is good health policy and the right thing to do. Putting up extra barriers or interfering with important medical decisions and delivery of care is not. The Womxn Project, our board and volunteers are committed to fighting for our right to build our futures as we envision them, and we’re going to keep fighting until that right is a reality for all. We are showing up Tuesday at the State House and we will keep showing up to get this bill enacted this year!”
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Jocelyn Foye and other members of the team and campaign are available for interview upon request.