[O]n the 46th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, Vermont lawmakers [rallied around a bill] introduced in the House on Wednesday that would make abortion a fundamental right.
“It’s difficult to talk about this topic because we’re talking about sex and sexuality and it makes people uncomfortable. We all get uncomfortable and our discomfort leads to silence,” Senate Majority Leader Becca Balint, D-Windham, said. “This continued silence about the real experiences of women is a strong barrier for all of us that seek to protect women’s access to a full range of reproductive care.”
The bill, an act relating to preserving the right to abortion, was introduced on the House floor by Reps. Ann Pugh, D-South Burlington, and Maxine Grad, D-Moretown, but carries an additional 89 tripartisan co-sponsors.
House Speaker Mitzi Johnson and Senate Pro Tem Tim Ashe gathered with other lawmakers and reproductive health choice activists to address a crowd of about 60 people to announce the legislation — which had been introduced on the floor — in the Statehouse.
“We need a Vermont where every Vermonter should feel free to make their personal decisions about their sexual and reproductive health care,” Johnson said. “They should be guaranteed unrestricted access to the doctors and the procedures that encompass the full range of that care, including abortion care.”
The bill proposes to recognize abortion as a fundamental right, and would protect in statute the right of reproductive health choice.
“The General Assembly intends this act to safeguard the right to abortion in Vermont by ensuring that right is not denied, restricted, or infringed by a governmental entity,” the bill says.
The bill would also make it illegal for any state or local law enforcement to prosecute licensed individuals for performing abortion procedures.
Vermont currently has no laws explicitly protecting abortion rights, and though there is some case law, abortion access in Vermont is legal due to the Roe v. Wade decision.
There are currently 13 legal cases on abortion and 25 total cases related to reproductive health that are in court systems throughout the country.
Leslie Sullivan Sachs, of Brattleboro, spoke to the crowd, telling the story of how she has had two abortions — one when she was 18 years old and another when she was 41.
“Abortion is a medical procedure for women only. Women’s medical issues have been hidden in the shadows for too long,” Sachs said. “It should not take courage to talk about a legal safe medical procedure nor should it take courage for the Vermont Legislature to pass an abortion rights bill.”
All the political parties in the legislature seem to support the House bill, and Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, has said he would be supportive of the legislation. The bill is currently in the House Committee on Human Services and is taking public testimony, but is expected to soon move to the Senate.
If the bill reaches the Senate, it would join an equal rights constitutional amendment that would protect the right to abortion in Vermont’s founding document, but that could take years to ratify.
Ashe said that it is important to recognize the disparity between men and women in the Senate — 20 men and 10 women — and that supporting the right to abortion is an issue that men must lead on.
“The challenge I am issuing to them, both in terms of changing statute and also our constitution, is to say we are going to treat this as an equal rights issue,” Ashe said. “I want every man to step up and face the music on this question and we will do that in the Vermont Senate.”