It finally happened! As you may have seen on the news, the Equality in Abortion Coverage was signed into law last night 5/18/2023 by the Governor. With your involvement making phone calls and writing to your legislators, providing written testimony, and/or appearing at the State House our collective efforts made equity real. We had strong legislators who led the charge. And we had coalitions that provided real life information for our messages. And now, all Rhode Islanders have access to abortion coverage.
A big cheer for a great accomplishment! Let's thank those supportive legislators we contacted for their vote!
And a big thanks to all of you!
The EACA (S 32) was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee (7-6) 5/16/2023
The committee members who voted yes were Chair Euer, Senators Quezada, LaMountain, McKenney, Burke. Majority Leader Pearson and Senate President Ruggerio both as ex-officio members came in to cast a vote in favor. The Senate President cast the tie-breaking vote. Please send a thank you to these Senators. No votes were: Senators Tikoian, DeLuca, Raptakis, Lombardi. Minority Leader de la Cruz and Minority Whip Rogers, also ex-officio came in to vote against.
The House EACA bill H-5006 was passed by the House 4/27/2023
Equality in Abortion Care Act (EACA - H-5006/S-32)
Please see the LWVRI EACA Call to Action along with the other documents below for details.
EACA FAQ RICRF EACA Fact Sheet Writing a LTE
Bills heard over past month:
• S0103 - which would allow pharmacies to prescribe hormonal contraceptive care.
The League testified in favor of this bill before the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. The bill was heard on April 4 and held.
• H5426 - The Individual Health Care Coverage Act - which would preserve “essential health benefits” that are provided for in the federal Affordable Health Care law. This bill was heard by the House Health and Human Services Committee on April 20 and held.
• H5006 - The Equality in Abortion Care Coverage Act - was passed by the House of Representatives! on April 27. It will now be sent to the Senate. The Senate version has not yet received a hearing, however, we are hopeful that it will be heard soon.
