Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, the Connecticut General Assembly Reproductive Rights Caucus has been prioritizing bolstering protections for health care providers and patients and expanding access to abortion. In 2022, the caucus, alongside advocates, fought for the passage of the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act (RFDA). The RFDA is designed to protect medical providers from adverse action for providing health care that is legal in Connecticut to patients forced to travel here due to banned or restricted abortion access and gender-affirming health care access in their home state.
To ensure health care providers know Connecticut has their backs and will protect their ability to provide essential care to their patients, strengthening the protections of the RFDA continued to be a priority for us in 2023 which has led us to this session’s priority, House Bill 5424, “An Act Prohibiting Adverse Actions Against Health Care Providers for Providing Certain Health Care Services.” The goal of this bill is simple: to ensure that health care providers do not face disciplinary action for providing medically accurate information, counseling, and needed health care, in line with the accepted standard of care, to their patients.
[RELATED: Bill would protect those at religious hospitals who offer care info]
Passing H.B. 5424 is a crucial next step towards furthering protections for Connecticut health care providers and safeguarding reproductive health and rights. The legislation, recently voted out of the Public Health Committee with bipartisan support, aims to shield providers who work at institutions with refusal policies from disciplinary actions such as dismissal, suspension, or penalties for offering counseling or referrals pertaining to a spectrum of reproductive health services, including contraception, abortion, gender-affirming care, and more.
Health care providers should be able to offer unbiased, medically accurate information to ensure that patients can make fully informed decisions about their health. Institutional refusal policies allow hospital administrators to interfere with physicians’ ability to provide patients with relevant information about their treatment options. It’s wrong for hospitals to interfere with a doctor’s ability to best care for their patients, especially if denying the patient that information jeopardizes their health and ability to access appropriate services.
While hospitals are protected under the First Amendment and have a freedom to operate in accordance with their religious tenets, that does not mean that those hospitals have a right to discriminate against or to discipline their providers for offering medically accurate information or care to patients. When a patient goes to the hospital, they should be confident that their provider will be able to provide the best care possible and not have to worry that they aren’t getting the appropriate care due to the hospital’s religious affiliation.
To be clear this H.B. 5424 will not require any affirmative actions by health care providers. It will only ensure that providers do not face disciplinary action for providing quality care and accurate information to their patients.
The right to comprehensive and timely health care should be indisputable. Yet for many individuals in Connecticut and beyond, especially those facing pregnancy complications, this fundamental right is under threat.
Connecticut has the opportunity to lead by example. By passing H.B. 5424, we will affirm our commitment to equitable access to health care and signal that no one should be denied essential services based on an institution’s religious or moral objections. It’s a matter of public health, individual autonomy, and basic human dignity.
We want to thank the Public Health Committee for their vote and urge the Connecticut General Assembly to vote favorably on H.B. 5424. Our state’s providers and patients deserve nothing less.
Gretchen Raffa is Vice President of Public Policy, Advocacy, and Organizing at Planned Parenthood Votes! Connecticut. State Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, represents District 18 in the Connecticut House and is Co-Chair of Connecticut Reproductive Rights Caucus.