Democrat-Led States Vie for Most Abortions Allowed on Roe Anniversary

Pro-choice activists block the road against US Capitol Police, who are escorting the March
JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty, File Images

Democrat-led states were eager to show just how permissive they are in allowing the most abortions, without restriction, on the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Newly elected Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker signed an executive order Tuesday to ensure all state insurance plans provide for taxpayer funding of abortions.

“This order will make it clear that state employees receiving government funded health insurance have the same rights to control their bodies and make their own healthcare decisions as everyone else in the state,” Pritzker said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, while vowing as well that Illinois “will be the most progressive state in the nation” when it comes to abortion.

Pritzker’s predecessor, former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, drew the ire of his party base for signing into law a bill forcing taxpayers to fund elective abortions. But Democrat Governor Pritzker said he was “concerned that the leadership that Gov. Rauner had in place wasn’t in fact making sure that it was enforced for state government employees.”

“And of course more broadly we want to make sure that private and public health insurance coverage included it and that it’s enforced,” Pritzker said. “So we had some indications, but the most important thing is we’re going to make sure that everyone, every woman in state government has the coverage that she deserves.”

With the support of Hillary Clinton, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a measure into law Tuesday that allows abortion “at any time” a woman’s “health” is determined in need of protection:

The Reproductive Health Act codifies protections for abortion and expands abortion rights for women and protections for abortionists, essentially making abortion a fundamental right.

According to the Times Union, Cuomo blamed the need for the legislation on President Donald Trump and his pro-life administration.

“There is a bitterness because we shouldn’t be here in the first place,” the Democrat governor said. “We should not have a federal government that is trying to roll back women’s rights … This administration (of President Donald Trump) defies American evolution.”

Prior to signing the bill, Cuomo presented a public service award to Sarah Weddington — who represented “Jane Roe,” aka Norma McCorvey — in the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that invented a constitutional right to abortion, though none ever existed in the Constitution. Ironically, McCorvey, who died in 2017, became a born-again Christian and a pro-life advocate. She also said she was manipulated into being the plaintiff in the case.

In Connecticut, Democrats proclaimed their state is now a “firewall” to protect abortion should Roe v. Wade be overturned.

“Under the Trump-Pence administration, and with Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, reproductive health care, including access to safe, legal abortion, faces its greatest threat,” Gretchen Raffa, director of policy and advocacy for Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, said, according to CT Mirror. Raffa was surrounded Tuesday by Democrat lawmakers and members of the administration of new Connecticut Democrat Gov. Ned Lamont.

“What you see here right now is a physical representation of the firewall to protect women’s reproductive rights, health care generally, and women’s rights and human rights,” said state Attorney General William Tong.

According to the report, a band of Democrat women in the Connecticut General Assembly is planning legislation that will include a ban on insurance co-pays for abortion and regulation of crisis pregnancy centers.

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