From the Supreme Court to statehouses nationwide, the right to control our bodies is under attack like never before. Yet despite the increasing threats to reproductive rights across the country, our efforts in Connecticut have once again helped enact necessary change at the state level. Connecticut’s legislative session ended on June 7, 2023. We are extraordinarily grateful to our champions in the Lamont administration and the legislature, including the leadership of the CT General Assembly Reproductive Rights Caucus, along with our supporters and advocates for keeping our state moving forward.
Protecting Providers and Patients
After passing the most significant abortion rights policy in our state in a generation last year, it was critical to enact stronger protections for health care providers guaranteed by the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act.
This session we passed policies that will:
- Prevent adverse action against health care providers such as a revocation or suspension of their license or other penalties based on their provision of abortion care.
- Ensure that providers are not subjected to higher insurance rates or penalties.
- Protect personal information — including location data related to reproductive and gender-affirming health care — from disclosure, preventing legal risk and harassment.
This is a critical step forward in fostering an environment where providers can deliver comprehensive reproductive health care without undue interference, for both Connecticut patients and for those traveling from out of state to access care. In this post-Roe landscape, strengthening privacy and confidentiality protections for reproductive health care is urgent. All people, no matter where they live, should be able to make personal health care decisions and access their care with privacy, safety and security.
Expanding Access to Birth Control
Making birth control more accessible is one way to increase reproductive health options and give people greater control over their health and lives.
Our policy wins this year will:
- Allow pharmacists to prescribe hormonal contraceptives.
- Allow emergency contraception (EC or morning-after pill) to be sold in vending machines.
Improving and Expanding Reproductive Health and Maternal Health
We advocate for access to the full range of care people need to make decisions about their own bodies, lives, and futures.
This year we were proud to support legislation that will:
- Ensure access to reproductive and gender-affirming health care for students attending public colleges and universities by requiring the campuses to establish a plan for students to access the essential health care they need.
- Improve maternal and infant health outcomes and expand access to doula care by establishing a licensure category for birthing centers in our state, establishing a universal newborn nurse home visiting services and an evidence-based infant mortality review committee and establishing a voluntary certification process for doulas.
- Invest in endometriosis research for early detection in adolescents and adults and the development of therapeutic strategies to improve clinical management.
Advancing Rights and Equity
True reproductive freedom means recognizing the many intersecting issues that impact peoples’ ability to have full bodily autonomy and agency over their lives.
Our coalition and community partners made these incredible wins possible, which will:
- Expand HUSKY Health coverage for children 15 and under, regardless of immigration status, and commission a study to explore increasing this age to 25.
- Provide Medicaid reimbursement to certified community health workers (CHW).
- Implement early voting to increase accessibility to elections, ensuring that individuals have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote conveniently and without obstacles.
- Expand access to the freedom to vote and strengthen protections against voting discrimination for communities of color throughout the state, thanks to the passage of the Connecticut Voting Rights Act in Recognition of John R. Lewis, the most comprehensive state-level voting rights act in the country.
While we celebrate these victories, we know there’s still more progress to be made as we did not win everything we were fighting for. We will be back next year to continue building a more equitable and just Connecticut and advocating to make reproductive health care affordable and accessible to all. Get involved today!
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