Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt and Rhode Island NOW President Hilary Levey Friedman:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Rhode Island legislature’s passage of a bill to codify Roe v. Wade, and Gov. Gina Raimondo’s swift signing of the measure, puts Rhode Island in the vanguard of states that are confronting the real threat to reproductive rights and the health and safety of women and girls. 

We commend lawmakers for recognizing that abortion care is health care, and that women’s fundamental right to access reproductive health care must never be taken away.  With a Supreme Court that could at any time reverse or subvert Roe to make abortion inaccessible and unaffordable, Rhode Island women need to know that their constitutional rights will be protected.   

Gov. Raimondo and the legislators who passed this law know that if women don’t have access to a complete range of affordable health care services, then maternal and infant death rates will rise. We must never turn back the clock on women’s health.  This action from Rhode Island protects women, upholds health care rights and saves lives, and NOW recommends that other states take notice.

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Kimberly Hayes, Press Secretary, [email protected], 202-570-4745