Rhode Island lawmakers push to wipe out outdated abortion laws

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The battle over abortion resumes at the State House this week with a push to finally “wipe off Rhode Island’s books” vestigial laws — with no current force-and-effect — that could be resurrected by a Trump-era Supreme Court.

One law requires prior notice to a spouse. Another prohibits insurance coverage for an abortion in most cases unless the woman has paid a premium for a policy that gave her the option. A third mandates the imprisonment for up to seven years of anyone who attempts to induce a “miscarriage? in a pregnant woman. And a fourth, dating back to 1973, says: “human life commences at the instant of conception.”

All were effectively rendered moot by the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision 45 years ago, as well as subsequent court rulings.

But “we have a president who is anti-choice, no friend of women, and has demonstrated a reckless disregard for the Constitution,? said state Rep. Edith Ajello, the lead sponsor of H7340, the House version of this year’s reworked Reproductive Health Care Act.

Read more: http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20180203/ri-lawmakers-push-to-wipe-out-outdated-abortion-laws