The president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England said Vermont is now “the shining example for all other states” of the radical, pro-abortion legislation that has become a mark of the Democrat Party.
Vermont Democrat Reps. Ann Pugh and Maxine Gold sponsored H.57, which received final approval Friday by the Democrat-led state legislature.
The bill declares abortion to be a “fundamental right,” and an amendment known as Proposal 5 would make Vermont the first state to preserve and protect a right to “personal reproductive liberty” in the Green Mountain state’s Constitution.
“Vermont has established itself as the shining example for all other states by acknowledging that every person is capable of — and must be trusted to — make their own health care decisions without government interference,” said Meagan Gallagher, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, reported the Washington Times.
While H.57 could become law and take effect immediately with Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s signature, Proposal 5 would need approval again by the General Assembly in 2021-2022 and then by the state’s voters in 2022 in order to amend Vermont’s Constitution.
“[W]e now have the most radical, pro-abortion legislation in the country,” said Vermont Right to Life Executive Director Mary Beerworth, according to the Times. “This will codify in statute unlimited, unregulated elective abortions.”
When the bill passed the Vermont House in February, Beerworth, said in a statement:
It is official. The Vermont Democrat Party now holds the dubious distinction of being the party of unlimited, unrestricted and unregulated abortion-on-demand throughout pregnancy. Common sense amendments to protect minor girls, to limit abortions on unborn babies in the later stages of development, to provide informed consent (including alternatives to abortion), to providing regulation and inspection of abortion clinics, and other amendments, all went down to defeat by a Democrat-led, super-majority in the House. Pro-abortion legislators walked in lock step with Planned Parenthood and the ACLU as they read on the House floor the talking points that were rather obviously provided to them by both pro-abortion organizations.
In her testimony about the bill in January, Catherine Glenn Foster, president of Americans United for Life, described H.57 as “sweeping in its operation” in that it “expands abortion allowances beyond Roe v. Wade and its progeny, rejects the state’s legitimate interest in protecting life, and prohibits commonsense protections for women’s health.”
The legislation prohibits every individual or state or local government entity “from interfering with or restricting the right of an individual to terminate the individual’s pregnancy” – for any reason.
Foster continued with the probable repercussions of banning any government official or entity from interfering with access to abortion at any time:
The Act thereby engenders a regulatory regime that is akin to the one in Pennsylvania that allowed the infamous abortionist Kermit Gosnell to operate his “House of Horrors” for decades. Gosnell, who was ultimately convicted of involuntary manslaughter, was able to perform unsafe, unsanitary, and deadly abortions for so many years because, according to the Grand Jury report, the Pennsylvania Department of Health thought it could not inspect or regulate abortion facilities because that would interfere with access to abortion.
The legislation goes beyond New York’s Reproductive Health Act, signed into law in January by Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as well as those measures proposed recently in Virginia and Rhode Island. These pieces of legislation essentially allow for abortion until birth via the vague exceptions pertaining to the “health” of the mother. The Vermont legislation requires no interpretation of whether the mother’s “health” is a factor in the decision to abort a baby. Any and all abortions would be legal throughout the pregnancy, and for any reason, if the Vermont bill becomes law.