The term “personal reproductive autonomy” is not defined anywhere in Vermont or American jurisprudence. It is a term invented for this proposed amendment — even the sponsors of the amendment admit that they do not know what the term means.
Making “personal reproductive autonomy” a right for every individual — men, women, and children — undermines women’s access to safe, on-demand abortion and undermines parents’ authority to direct their children in reproductive matters free from state interference.
By the third trimester (at least) it is impossible not to see that a fetus is a separate human being from the mother who is carrying her. Prop 5/Article 22 fails to consider the child’s claim to life at all.
Vermont is trending to become a destination state for all Americans seeking to legally buy sex, lethal end-of-life drugs, and abortions currently illegal in their own states.
At the Holy Family Parish Center in Essex Junction on Saturday morning, Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, urged pro-choice and pro-life Vermonters to recognize that Article 22 protects third-trimester abortions, something even most pro-choice Vermonters oppose.
When asked specifically about whether or not California should make abortion on demand an unrestricted right throughout all nine months of pregnancy, even a solid majority of Californians don’t support this.
Article 22, creating an unrestricted right to abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy in our Constitution, is not reflective of Vermonters’ collective values.
Even pro-choice Vermonters have second thoughts when they find out Prop 5/Article 22 allows for an on-demand abortion up to and including nine months.
On the other side of the issue, voters in California, Michigan and Vermont would decide whether their state constitutions should establish an affirmative right to abortion. California’s and Vermont’s measures already have been certified for the ballot, and Michigan’s is expected to be by the end of this month.
A caller to “The Morning Drive” asked a question about Roe vs. Wade — and we had a brief but candid discussion.
State Rep. Anne Donahue, a spokesperson for Vermonters for Good Government, today formally offers to accept the challenge to discuss and debate the pros and cons of Article 22, both on the Morning Drive and in other appropriate venues.
The New Hampshire Executive Council has blocked funding for the state’s reproductive centers amid concerns the money will be used for abortions and emergency contraception. This was the fourth time that the council had rejected contracts proposed by state health officials for Planned Parenthood.