Legislation

The year got off to a positive start when, on his first day in office, Governor Chafee signed an executive order lifting a requirement that state agencies and business contractors use the deeply flawed federal E-Verify program to check the immigration status of workers.

The Affiliate also testified in opposition to legislation to require all communities to participate in the federal Secure Communities program, which requires an automatic check of the fingerprints of any arrested individual against immigration databases.

Consideration of a seemingly innocuous bill setting up the framework for a health insurance exchange to implement the new federal health care reform law took a nasty turn when Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed inserted a surprise anti-abortion amendment into the bill.

In one of the worst examples of legislative “compromise” on a hot-button issue, Rhode Island now has a civil union law that neither proponents nor opponents of marriage equality wanted.

Abortion also tangled up a bill that sought to establish licensing procedures for the profession of genetic counselor.

The ACLU and others testified in strong opposition to legislation that would require doctors to perform an ultrasound on a woman who has made the decision to abort and explain, in detail, information about the fetus.

In an effort to address a major human rights and civil liberties concern, legislation on behalf of the Affiliate, RI State Nurses Association and RI NOW was introduced to prohibit shackling or otherwise restraining incarcerated pregnant women during labor, delivery and post-recovery.

More than thirty House members are co-sponsoring a bill that, following in the footsteps of Massachusetts, would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.