Gov. Dan McKee signs the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act into law on May 18, 2023. The law lifted a 40-year old prohibition on using state Medicaid money and state employee health insurance to fund abortion care.(Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)
The freedom to decide what you do with your body is on national and local ballots this election cycle. Candidates opposed to bodily freedom–like reproductive health and LGBTQIA+ rights–are running for elected office across Rhode Island. Your vote could be the deciding factor in protecting these rights.
Even in a post-Roe world where reproductive health and trans rights are still under attack, candidates should be upfront about their stance for or against bodily autonomy.
But there’s no clear way for voters to decipher where they align on these critical human rights issues. In the past, voters had to rely on a piecemeal approach to finding out where candidates stood, looking for their positions via legislation, campaigns, or public relations efforts.
That’s why the Womxn Project (TWP) created the Bodily Freedom Forever Indexⓒ (BFFI), the first and only tool to evaluate where candidates stand on bodily freedom forever.
BFFI ratings come from support of issues at the foundation of bodily freedom: reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights. The Womxn Project defines a “YES” rating in the BFFI as a candidate who has answered questions about whether they support policies to maintain and protect Rhode Island residents’ right to sole decision-making power over our bodies (so long as those decisions do not infringe on another’s bodily autonomy).
The Womxn Project believes voters have a right to a level of transparency from candidates and elected officials at a time when policies are being proposed or put in place at local, state, and national levels, restricting or even eliminating reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights.
Every candidate running for federal, state and local office in Rhode Island this year has received the survey. We sent out a link to the survey to candidates in some towns on Sept. 26 and then sent it to all towns on Oct. 4 and again on Oct. 31. Every candidate running for the Barrington School Committee responded. We heard back from 20% of Rhode Island Senate candidates and 10% of Rhode Island House candidates.
Unfortunately, many candidates chose not to respond. They prefer to keep their position on fundamental human rights a secret. We believe silence is still an answer to their stance on bodily freedom for all. When candidates ignore the opportunity to be clear about whether they support one of our most fundamental rights, they may put our lives at stake.
The Womxn Project encourages local constituents to send the survey directly to candidates running in their area. We think our survey presents an opportunity candidates should not overlook. And it’s a powerful way for voters to engage with the local political process.
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