The Reproductive Freedom Defense Act

During the 2022 legislative session, Connecticut passed the most significant abortion rights legislation in a generation – The Reproductive Freedom Defense Act (Public Act 22-19). On May 5, 2022, Governor Lamont signed the bill into law! The policy updates and modernizes Connecticut’s abortion law and protects our patients and providers from abortion bans passed by politicians in other states.
 

Expanding Access to Abortion

• This law updates Connecticut’s abortion statute – passed more than 30 years ago – and brings our regulations in line with modern medical standards of care, removing an outdated and medically unnecessary requirement that only physicians can perform procedural abortion
• The act allows qualified, trained advanced practice clinicians (nurse-midwives, advanced practice registered nurses, and physician assistants) to provide safe, routine aspiration abortion to their patients
• This change will increase the number of health care providers who can perform this common in-clinic abortion procedure – allowing patients to access time-sensitive abortion care in their communities from the clinicians they already know and trust

Protecting Patients + Providers

• Politicians across the country are determined to eliminate abortion not only in their own states – but wherever patients can access safe, legal abortion care
• This Reproductive Freedom Defense Act would protect Connecticut clinicians who provide legal abortion in our state from lawsuits encouraged by the “bounty hunter” provisions in extreme, radical abortion bans like S.B. 8 in Texas
• This act would also protect anyone forced to travel to Connecticut to access abortion from harassment and targeted attacks by politicians in other states, or from having their personal and private medical history used against them

 

And there’s more work to do. Even with these important advancements, we know some Connecticut residents won’t be able to access the abortion care they need and deserve. We’ll continue fighting to keep health care affordable and accessible, ensure health insurance coverage regardless of immigration status, and eliminate any barrier – including abortion shame and stigma – that keeps abortion care out of reach.

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.