by Guy Page
About 150 people gathered on a hot, sunny morning on the Vermont State House lawn to learn more about Vermonters for Good Government and its efforts to get voters to turn out in opposition November 8 against Article 22.
The statewide voter referendum would, if approved by voters, make unrestricted abortion on demand up to the moment of birth a right enshrined in the Vermont Constitution.
According to Vermonters for Good Government, this proposed State Constitutional Amendment would:
• Guarantee unregulated late-term abortions throughout all nine months of pregnancy up to the day of birth.
• Remove “conscience protection” for healthcare workers, meaning more doctors and nurses would avoid working in Vermont, creating more staffing shortages.
• Eliminate parental rights concerning children’s sexual and gender related choices.
VFGG maintains that Article 22 represents an extreme, absolutist point of view on the difficult, nuanced issue of legal abortion.
Despite the strong pro-choice sentiment in Vermont, more than half support establishing health and safety regulations for abortion clinics (54%), requiring a doctor or clinic to inform women about fetal development and alternatives to abortion before performing the procedure (55%), and requiring a physician or clinic to notify a parent or legal guardian before performing an abortion on a minor (53%), and agree that it should be a crime in Vermont for someone to hurt or kill an unborn child in the womb, VFGG said.
VFGG can be contacted at its website, by phone at (802) 828-7095, or email LearnMore@vermontersforgoodgovernment.org.
“If we tell Vermonters what this monstrosity means in the real world, we will win.”
– Matthew Strong, Vermonters for Good Government Executive Director
“Abortion up to birth is not the will of the majority. We are not the outliers. We need to get Vermonters to the polls.”
– Vermont Rep. Anne Donahue