Opinion/Matos: Let's support reproductive rights without equivocation

Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos lives in Providence with her husband and two children.

On Mother’s Day, I am honored to celebrate my mom, the cornerstone of our family. Sixteen years ago, I also became a mother, and this celebration took on a whole new level of meaning. Many people say that becoming a parent changes you: they are right. Being a parent has helped me build a stronger connection to my family, my faith, and our community and state.

As parents, the most basic thing any of us want for our kids is for them to have opportunities to live happy, healthy, and independent lives. For them to have those opportunities, though, they need access to health care. Infuriatingly, my daughter may not grow up to have that same fundamental access to health care as my son.

Just six days before Mother’s Day, we learned that anti-abortion justices on the Supreme Court plan to issue a decision that will counteract nearly 50 years of legal precedent by overturning the right to a legal and safe abortion established by Roe v. Wade.  

We are fortunate that Rhode Island leaders anticipated these threats several years ago and took action for our state. I was proud when then-Governor Gina Raimondo signed a bill that codified Rhode Islanders’ right to safely access the reproductive health care they need. But today, I worry those actions are no longer enough.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, more than 70 pieces of legislation have been introduced this year in states across the country attempting to ban most or all abortions, including at least four here in Rhode Island alone.

Local leaders have an obligation to take clear actions that declare every woman is free to make medical decisions in our state. 

This year, I am proud that I was able to successfully advocate for the introduction of budget measures that would expand health-care coverage here in our state. These measures would ensure 12 months of postpartum coverage and extend health coverage to all children living in Rhode Island, regardless of their immigration status. If passed, these investments will benefit hundreds of new families each year, especially communities of color and low-income families who are less likely to have access to employer-sponsored health care with postpartum benefits.

While I am excited that these proposals were included in the administration’s budget, another important measure I advocated for was not. Those measures were the reforms that are now included in a standalone bill: the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act. The EACA would create more equitable access to reproductive health care and allow state employees and Rhode Islanders who are enrolled in Medicaid to have reproductive health care, including abortion, covered by insurance.

If our collective goal is to make safe health care as accessible as possible to everyone in our state, then we must change current state laws and practices to include this coverage.

I urge our General Assembly members to pass the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act . And I encourage our governor to sign it, as he has indicated he will. The high-level cost to provide this kind of coverage is negligible to taxpayers, but the individual cost of continued financial barriers to health care is devastating.

Rhode Island must send a message to the rest of the nation that we support reproductive rights without equivocation. This Mother's Day, let’s stand up together and do all that we can to protect access to complete health care and empower individuals to make reproductive choices for themselves.