This week we learned the U.S. Supreme Court is ready to overrule Roe v. Wade – and eliminate our constitutional right to safe, legal abortion. We have never lost a constitutional right. Although it has been a decades-long, systematic effort to strip away our right to abortion, it is no less devastating. And while anti-abortion politicians are capitalizing on this moment to pass increasingly restrictive and extreme abortion bans, Connecticut is once again leading the fight for reproductive freedom in our country.
Connecticut’s legislative session ended on May 4, 2022. We are extraordinarily grateful to our champions, supporters, and advocates for keeping our state moving forward.
Expanding Abortion Access
We passed the most significant abortion rights legislation in a generation: The Reproductive Freedom Defense Act. Here’s what it does:
- The act expands access to abortion care in our state by updating our laws and regulations to allow advanced practice clinicians (nurse-midwives, advanced practice registered nurses, and physician assistants) to provide aspiration abortion to their patients
- It also shields Connecticut health care providers and anyone forced to travel to our state to receive legal abortion care from targeted attacks and lawsuits from out-of-state politicians
We acknowledge that during the debate, lawmakers spoke about the painful impact of medical racism and Planned Parenthood’s own history of causing irreparable harm to Black, Latino, and Indigenous lives. We are listening to the powerful words shared by Black women in the General Assembly about the irreparable damage to the health and lives of generations of Black women by the reproductive rights movement and the medical field. We acknowledge these injustices as we strive to correct them.
At Planned Parenthood we will work every day until full health, dignity, and self-determination are a reality for everyone.
Investments in Sexual and Reproductive Health Care
We were also grateful to Governor Ned Lamont and champions in the General Assembly who passed a budget with an incredible investment in family planning providers and Planned Parenthood health centers to keep sexual and reproductive health care services accessible in our communities.
Advancing Rights + Equity
Our coalition and community partners made these incredible wins possible:
- Increased Medicaid coverage for eligible residents, up to the age of 12, regardless of immigration status
- Expanding access to doula care by establishing a doula advisory committee
- $2 million investment for free menstrual products in Connecticut schools
- Funding for a statewide endometriosis program to support research and continuing education for health care providers
- An important first step to meet the comprehensive health care needs of incarcerated persons in Connecticut correctional facilities
- Easing restrictions on absentee voting
And we know there’s still more to do. We’ll be back next year fighting to keep health care affordable and accessible, address racial health care disparities and advance racial justice, and build a more equitable Connecticut.
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