Rhode Island ‘Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion’ Act (S 2585)

S 2585 would prohibit a person from performing, or attempting to perform a “dismemberment abortion” on a “living unborn child” unless it is necessary to save the life of the pregnant person or if the continued pregnancy would cause substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant person.

The bill defines “dismemberment abortion” as

[…]the purpose of causing the death of an unborn child, knowingly dismembering a living unborn child and extracting such unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments that, through the convergence of two rigid levers, slice, crush or grasp a portion of the unborn child’s body in order to cut or rip it off.

A person who violates this provision would be guilty of a misdemeanor for the first conviction, and guilty of a felony for any subsequent conviction.

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This law targets a procedure known as dilation and evacuation (D and E), which is frequently used during second-trimester abortions. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, an abortion using suction aspiration can be performed up to 14 weeks’ gestation, but after 14 weeks the D and E procedure must be used to perform an abortion. As such, dilation and evacuation bans, depending upon their language, may ban all surgical abortion past 14 weeks’ gestation. (Source.)

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Related Legislation

Based on model legislation drafted by the National Right to Life Committee.

Companion bill to H 7026.

Similar to H 5100 (2017) and S 2216/H 7282 (2016), all of which failed to pass.

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People

Organizations

• National Right to Life Committee — Drafted Model Law