Rhode Island allows late-term abortions

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, signed a bill into law Wednesday that strips the state government of the power to protect unborn children up to the moment of birth. “It is extremely disappointing to see Rhode Island lawmakers cave to pressure from the abortion lobby to pass this radical bill,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List. “Rhode Islanders should not be fooled by the smokescreen of ‘compromise’: This law expands abortion on demand through the moment of birth.”

Though the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision gave states the right to protect babies from abortion if they could survive outside the womb, Rhode Island’s so-called Reproductive Privacy Act says abortion must be allowed throughout a pregnancy if it is necessary for the life or health of the mother. The act does not define “life” or “health.”

Though Rhode Island Democrats control both chambers of the state legislature by an overwhelming margin—33-5 in the Senate and 66-9 in the House—the act only passed the Senate by four votes. The Susan B. Anthony List found in a poll conducted in May that 63 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of self-described “pro-choice” voters in Rhode Island opposed late-term abortions, and 77 percent of all of those surveyed opposed allowing abortions all the way up to birth.