PROVIDENCE — Almost a year since lawmakers passed a bill that solidified abortion’s legal standing in Rhode Island, local pro-life leaders testified in favor of a symbolic resolution that would recognize the unborn’s basic humanity.
“While a resolution has no practical effect in law, it does provide a wonderful opportunity for all of us to reflect upon the incredible journey upon which each one of us has personally embarked,” Destiny Smith, the deputy director and education coordinator at the Rhode Island Right to Life Committee, said in written testimony submitted to the House Judiciary Committee.
Smith offered her testimony in favor of H7355, a resolution sponsored by five House Democratic lawmakers that would recognize that the “existence of a fetal heartbeat or flutter is evidence of the existence of human life.”
The resolution also notes that advancements in prenatal care are “dramatically improving” the odds of survival for premature babies. Before taking the matter under advisement, the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on Feb. 25.
“The resolution being considered by this Committee seeks nothing more than to affirm this remarkable biological reality, a biological reality through which each of us has lived,” Smith said in her prepared remarks.
Said Smith, “It is hard to imagine anything less controversial or anything less complicated for this Committee and this General Assembly to do than to affirm this beautiful reality of human life.”
Opponents of the resolution, which would not have any immediate practical effect on law, argued the measure was part of a longterm strategy to lay the foundation for banning abortion in Rhode Island. They also accused the resolution’s sponsors of misrepresenting science and blurring the lines between the separation of church and state.
Tyler Rowley, president of Servants of Christ for Life, testified in favor of the resolution. Speaking in defense of unborn children, Rowley urged lawmakers to “give them back something” after they passed the Reproductive Privacy Act in 2019.
“After last year’s legislation, these children have nothing. They have nothing left,” Rowley said. “You took away their protection and legal status.”
Signed into law last summer by Gov. Gina Raimondo, the Reproductive Privacy Act prohibits the state from interfering in a woman’s decision to abort an unborn child before it is viable outside the womb. After viability, abortions are allowed in cases to preserve the “life or health” of the mother.
Supporters said the legislation would only reinforce what the U.S. Supreme Court currently permits, but pro-life advocates warned that it would pave the way for late-term abortions, for virtually any reason, in Rhode Island. In his testimony, Rowley said the law nullified fetal protection statutes that permitted individuals to be criminally prosecuted for causing an unborn child to die during an assault on the mother.
“Right now as we stand in Rhode Island, we are denying all legal status and protections to an 8 1/2-month-old unborn child who sleeps comfortably in his mother’s womb, and who the mother loves and wants to keep,” Rowley said. “We don’t even protect that child who’s wanted by his mother.”
Where Rhode Island lawmakers are now only considering a resolution, several other states in recent years have moved to enact “heartbeat bills” to ban abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy, when the fetal heartbeat can first be detected.
However, none of those laws have thus far withstood legal challenges because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s precedents that prohibit states from outlawing abortion before the unborn child is viable outside the womb. The high court also does not permit states to impose an “undue burden” on women who seek abortions. Opponents of heartbeat bills point out that the fetal heartbeat is detectable before a woman often knows she’s pregnant.
The Feb. 25 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee was marred by tragedy.
Christopher Young, 51, a longtime outspoken pro-life activist and perennial political candidate, died shortly after testifying before the committee. His wife Kara shared in a Facebook post that Young had passed away from a medical event, most likely a heart attack, while driving home from the state capital.
In his last public witness against abortion, Young sat at a table next to his wife, and their young daughter. Lawmakers tried to calm him down, but Young got worked up as he spoke out in apocalyptic terms about politics and the unborn’s humanity.
“Take this under advisement — You are going to face God,” Young said.
The fetal heartbeat resolution is sponsored by Democratic representatives James McLaughlin of Central Falls, Jose Serodio of East Providence, Camille Vella-Wilkinson of Warwick, Arthur Corvese of North Providence and Raymond Hull of Providence.
“I kind of feel like Moses, going before the Pharaoh, asking to consider these little ones as human beings,” McLaughlin said in introducing the resolution before the committee. McLaughlin said all he was asking for was a “fair shake” from the committee. He noted that because of technological advancements since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, the public today knows that unborn children have their own DNA signature and fingerprints.
“Their identity has already been earmarked,” said McLaughlin, adding that the resolution acknowledges the unborn as human beings.
