Vermont Could Be First State To Guarantee Abortion Rights In Constitution – By Lydia O’Connor (HuffPost) / February 9, 2022
Voters will soon get to decide on an amendment that’s been in the making for nearly two years.
As another wave of Republican-backed efforts in red states is severely limiting access to abortion, Vermont lawmakers have approved an amendment that would enshrine the right to the procedure in the state’s constitution.
The proposed article will now be put to voters, who could make Vermont the first state to put such a protection in its constitution. If passed, the amendment will affirm that “an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling State interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”
The amendment, which will be on the ballot as Proposition 5, would not make any practical changes in Vermont, where there are no major abortion restrictions in place and the procedure is protected by state law. But it would make it much harder for future lawmakers to change that.
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