Emboldened by a string of victories in November’s elections, activists in Connecticut are looking to strengthen the state’s abortion laws.
While lame-duck lawmakers in Ohio pushed for legislation that would ban abortions after fetal cardiac activity has been detected and the Michigan legislature approved a new restriction on abortion pills, the Connecticut General Assembly is poised to consider measures that would make abortion more accessible.
Among the bills likely to be introduced in the 2019 legislative session, which begins on Jan. 9, is a provision to require private health insurance plans to cover abortion services without a copay. Another proposal would make Connecticut the first state in the nation to regulate faith-based pregnancy centers. Also under discussion is legislation that would ban discrimination against workers based on their reproductive health choices, including abortion, fertility treatment and birth control.
At a time when Roe v. Wade could be overturned by an increasingly conservative U.S. Supreme Court, Connecticut and a handful of other states are poised to become testing grounds for more liberal abortion policies, even as dozens of other states move to restrict access to the procedure.
“The threat to Roe is real,” said Sarah Higginbotham, senior campaigns adviser at NARAL Pro-Choice America. “Connecticut should be really proud of its leadership role.”
Even if the 1973 landmark Roe decision is overturned, abortion would remain legal in Connecticut because it was codified into state law decades ago. Instead of defending the status quo, NARAL and other women’s rights groups in Connecticut are pressing for an expansion of abortion rights, pointing to November’s election results as a signal that the voters support such moves.
“Many of the candidates who won made reproductive rights part of their platform,” said Sarah Croucher, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut. “We feel comfortable that the public gave us a mandate on these issues.”
NARAL is advocating for a state law modeled on a Hartford ordinance that bans deceptive practices at so-called crisis pregnancy centers, which critics say sometimes pose as medical clinics to lure women and hand out misleading information about abortion. The city council adopted the ordinance last year; it requires faith-based pregnancy centers to disclose whether their staff carry medical licenses, and it prohibits such establishments from engaging in false or deceptive advertising practices.
NARAL is also seeking to eliminate copays on abortion services, similar to a law that took effect in Oregon last year, and bar employers from discriminating against workers who use birth control, have had an abortion or are receiving fertility treatment.
“I think its really important that we, as an organization, hold the people we supported accountable for the full spectrum of reproductive rights,” Croucher said.
In the state Senate, two prominent critics of legalized abortion, Republicans Michael McLachlan and Len Suzio, were replaced by Democratic women who back abortion rights. Also, state Sen. Joe Markley, who has long pressed for a bill requiring minors to notify a parent before obtaining an abortion, lost his bid to become lieutenant governor.
Gov.-elect Ned Lamont, a Democrat who strongly supports legalized abortion, believes Connecticut should be “a national leader on protecting women’s right to reproductive health care,” said his spokeswoman, Lacey Rose. “He will support measures that promote informed and affordable access to these critical health services.”
Republicans who support legalized abortion, such as state Reps. Terrie Wood of Darien, Gail Lavielle of Wilton and House Minority Leader Themis Klarides of Derby, won re-election.
Abortion foes are not giving up, despite the loss of key political allies. The Connecticut Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the Catholic bishops in Connecticut, is once again calling for adoption of a parental notification law similar to the laws passed in forty-three other states, including Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
“The passage of a parental notification law by the Connecticut General Assembly is the best approach to ensuring that teens receive the emotional, medical and legal support and protections to which they are entitled,” the Connecticut Catholic Conference states in a report on abortion in the state released last month. “It is also the best way to ensure that parents, not doctors or counselors who are essentially strangers to the teen, have the opportunity to assist their child when facing the challenges of an unplanned pregnancy.”
Rob Sampson, a Republican state representative from Wolcott, has backed parental notification laws in the past and was listed by NARAL as “one of the greatest anti-choice threats” of the 2018 election cycle.
But Sampson, who was recently elected to the state senate, said his views on abortion are more nuanced than his opponents have portrayed.
“For whatever reason, Planned Parenthood spent a lot of money against me in the last year and for the life of me, I have no idea why,” Sampson said. He described his views on abortion as “pretty libertarian.”
Daniela Altimari can be reached at dnaltimari@courant.com.
