Taking a cue from radical New York Democrats, Vermont is on track to make abortion up to birth a constitutional right.
Pro-abortion lawmakers and activists on Wednesday introduced a bill to enshrine abortion on-demand up to birth in a state that already has no protections for the unborn, looking to eventually channel the bill into an amendment in the state’s constitution.
“We need a Vermont where every Vermonter should feel free to make their personal decisions about their sexual and reproductive health care,” said House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, according to Vermont Digger. “They should be guaranteed unrestricted access to the doctors and the procedures that encompass the full range of that care, including abortion care.”
“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 states, adding, “Every individual who becomes pregnant has the fundamental right to choose to carry a pregnancy to term, give birth to a child, or to have an abortion.”
The bill also emphasizes that unborn babies have zero rights in Vermont: “A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus shall not have independent rights under Vermont law.”
Furthermore, per the legislation, state and local law enforcement will be banned from prosecuting “any individual for inducing, performing, or attempting to induce or perform the individual’s own abortion,” no matter the stage of pregnancy.
If the bill were to become an amendment, it would ensure abortion on-demand even after a potential overturning of Roe v. Wade. “In order for the amendment to proceed, it would have to gain a majority vote in the House and two-thirds’ vote in Senate this session and again next year for Vermonters to vote on it in 2022. It would go into effect the next year,” explained One News Now.
Vermont Right to Life Committee leader Mary Hahn Beerworth blasted Planned Parenthood and pro-abortion politicians for the move. “Vermont … has legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy without a single restriction or regulation on the practice of abortion – not even that a doctor perform the procedure; no limit on how late into pregnancy; and … legalized physician-assisted suicide. And now it wants to enshrine death into the Vermont Constitution,” she said.
“We refer to Planned Parenthood here as the fourth branch of government,” added Beerworth, “and every year they simply deliver their wish list. They have so many clinics per capita here that they dominate the political scene.”
Meagan Gallagher of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England gushed over the legislation. “States are a critical backstop to the further erosion and restriction of reproductive health care. We must pass the House abortion rights bill and the Senate equal rights constitutional amendment to ensure that reproductive rights are protected in Vermont,” she told WCAX, reported Life News.
As noted by The Daily Wire on Wednesday, radical Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) announced in January that he was looking to enshrine abortion on-demand up to birth into the state constitution. “I want to pass a constitutional amendment that writes into the constitution a provision protecting a woman’s right to control her own reproductive health. We’ll pass it next year; we’ll put it onto the ballot; we’ll write it into the constitution,” said Cuomo, adding, “I have no doubt that Gorsuch is going to reverse Roe v. Wade. So what do we do? Protect ourselves. Pass a law that is a prophylactic to federal action.”