Rep. Williams says Dobbs decision shows why Reproductive Privacy Act was necessary
Rep. Anastasia P. Williams, who sponsored the bill protecting abortion rights in state law, says, “This ruling shows why all the critics who said the right to choose wasn’t in jeopardy were wrong.”
STATE HOUSE – Rep. Anastasia P. Williams (D-Dist. 9, Providence), who in 2019 introduced and sponsored legislation to codify Roe v. Wade in Rhode Island state law, released the following statement about the far-right Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health:
“When we were debating the Reproductive Privacy Act, so many critics told me, the other sponsors and the advocates that we were overreacting about the threat to abortion rights. These skeptics, many of them men, said Roe v. Wade was settled law and would never be overturned. But once again, privileged men in our nation’s capital were unable to empathize with the people, mostly lower income women of color, who would be harmed by the far-right’s attack on reproductive healthcare.
“I am so proud of the work my fellow cosponsors, advocates and I did to make sure abortion rights are protected here in Rhode Island, no matter what the far-right Republicans and their allies on the Supreme Court try to do.
“There is still more work to be done, though. We need to pass the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act, which would have extended health insurance coverage of abortion to state employees and Medicaid beneficiaries. We also need to protect reproductive healthcare providers from harassment and violence and I look forward to continuing the fight for reproductive health equality in the next legislative session,” concluded Representative Williams.
Arizona's near-total abortion ban is still law. The Civil War-era law outlaws the procedure except to save the life of the woman and threatens providers with prison sentences between two and five years. The state's House did not repeal law on Wednesday following Democratic lawmakers attempt to do so. 
