Abortion, mifepristone and reproductive rights: What to know about CT’s laws as Trump takes office

CT Insider – Sunday, November 10, 2024
By Jordan Nathaniel Fenster

With the reelection of Donald Trump to the White House, reproductive rights advocates in Connecticut are bracing for a bitter fight, despite the statewide protections already in place.

Abortion is legal in Connecticut until the 24th week of pregnancy in most cases, and state officials have reinforced that with both legislation and verbal commitment in recent years.

But with Vice President-elect JD Vance on the record saying he “certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally,” the continued access to abortion is expected to be contested.

“We know we are going to be up against a big fight in Congress and from the Trump administration,” said Gretchen Raffa, head of Planned Parenthood Votes! Connecticut. “It doesn’t stop with attacks on abortion. They’re planning to restrict access to birth control, in-vitro fertilization, funding for birth control and other preventative health care. We know that they’re going to continue to attack gender-affirming care and sex education.”

Tong and 23 other attorneys general issued an amicus brief in June in support of the abortion medication mifepristone and, a year earlier, a Washington state federal judge issued an order protecting access to the medication in 18 states, including Connecticut.

“I want to make it very clear that today, right now, this minute, abortion remains safe, legal and accessible here in Connecticut, and mifepristone is safe, legal and accessible here in Connecticut,” Tong said Wednesday. “I don’t want any doubt about that.”

At the federal level, Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Wednesday that Democrats would use the filibuster to stop any attack on abortion access.

“I think that’s one way in which we can prevent the national ban on abortion,” he said. “Even if the filibuster were ended, I think we could defeat a national ban on abortion. There’s no question where the people of the United States are on this issue. Whatever they may think of abortion for their families or themselves, they believe it should be a decision that each individual woman makes for herself. That’s the basic principle. Reproductive freedom is a core freedom.”

Though the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson overturned some abortion protections granted by Roe v. Wade, Tong said it also affirms the state’s ability to protect access to reproductive freedom.

“The U.S. Supreme Court said in Dobbs, quite clearly, this is a matter for states, so they better respect that. This is Connecticut’s decision,” Tong said. “This is Connecticut’s call about reproductive freedom and access to abortion, and we honor and respect that right. We’ve ensconced it in our law, and so I would argue, if they try that, they cannot preempt Connecticut, because it is a matter for the sovereign state of Connecticut to determine.”

Connecticut has, in recent years, solidified access to reproductive care in-state, most significantly the 2022 Reproductive Freedom Defense Act which, among other provisions, protects providers and forbids the use of public resources to sue or prosecute someone for receiving or providing abortion care.

“Nothing has changed with the election. Abortion and sexual and reproductive health care is still safe, legal and accessible to everyone in Connecticut, and anyone that has to travel here for care,” Raffa said. “We want to make sure that folks know the legal landscape has not changed. It doesn’t change overnight with an election.”

Raffa said the goal in the next legislative session will be to further “make sure that we’re doing everything to codify, in state law, protections for birth control.”

“We’re going to try to further protect providers who are delivering essential health care, regardless of the institution that they work in and make sure patients who go into a hospital in Connecticut can get the essential health care that they need, including pregnancy related care in hospital emergency rooms,” she said. “We’re going to look at how we’re going to further protect access to fertility health care coverage, and make sure that our state laws are aligned with the medical standard of care, so that people that need health care coverage to build their families have that.”

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