Reproductive care
Ban state contracts with or payments to any business that has a policy of declining to dispense reproductive healthcare medication. Essentially, the state wouldn’t work with companies that stop distributing medications, like abortion pills, in any state, not just Connecticut. (e.g. Walgreens).
Reproductive Freedom Coalition
Connecticut Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz has formed a 22-state coalition as a “firewall” for reproductive rights. The Reproductive Freedom Coalition consists of lieutenant governors who represent 165 million people in total. The coalition will serve as a space for state leaders to share executive orders, legislative ideas and legal strategy after the reversal of Roe v. Wade through the Dobbs decision.
Connecticut was not one of the states where Walgreens said it would stop selling the drug mifepristone, but many state Democrats are saying just because it hasn’t happened in Connecticut yet, doesn’t mean it couldn't happen here in the future. “If these companies are so cowardly and feckless that they will immediately surrender to a baseless legal threat and a letter from these politicians, what will happen when that letter demands that they stop providing this drug here in Connecticut,” questioned state Rep. Matt Blumenthal, (D-Stamford).
“It's incredibly disappointing for any company to play politics with women's lives,” state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, (D-West Hartford) said.
Republican Response
Republicans call this measure “scare tactics.”
“This is some pretty darn political stuff here,” said state Sen. Rob Sampson, (R-Wolcott) during a committee meeting on the bill. “Let me tell you, this is somewhat shocking to me.”
“The bill introduced by Democrats is focused on actions that are occurring in other states, not Connecticut,” wrote state Rep. Gale Mastrofrancesco, (R-Southington) in a statement. “Once again, the Democrats are creating policy for a problem that does not exist in Connecticut.”
OTHER NEWS
Reproductive Rights Caucus has been working to:
—Broaden the scope of last year’s safe harbor law by establishing a fund to cover collateral costs for patients who travel to Connecticut for an abortion.
—Increase the amount of funding that Medicaid provides for reproductive healthcare from the current 90 percent to full funding. Moreover, this proposal includes a provision to create funding sources within the state to cover reproductive healthcare costs, including abortions, for any person who travels to Connecticut and qualifies for Medicaid.
—Expand funding and training for advanced practice nurses, physicians assistants and nurse-midwives who are now allowed to provide aspiration-abortions — a procedure that uses a vacuum source to remove an embryo or fetus through the cervix — during the first trimester, under a law signed by Lamont in May of 2022.
--Better protect doctors who provide abortions from punitive actions in other states. Connecticut is a member of various medical compacts where a provider in Connecticut is also licensed to practice in other member states. Disciplinary action in one of these states may then follow a medical provider licensed in Connecticut.
Reproductive Freedom Alliance
—A non-partisan 20-state coalition looking to expand reproductive freedom in their states. Governor Lamont has committed Connecticut to this Alliance.
—Attorney General William Tong has signed onto an amicus brief to reject a challenge brought in a case in the U.S. District Court of Northern Texas to revoke the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the medication abortion drug Mifepristone.
—Republican caucus have also put forward a parental consent law that would require minors to notify their guardians if they are getting an abortion.