Connecticut officials and health care advocates are sharing their concerns about more potential threats to abortion and reproductive health care, gathering in New Haven this week just hours after conservative Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance was named Donald Trump’s pick for vice president.
Vance, who signaled support for a national 15-week abortion ban when running for Senate, later softened that stance, but says the issue of abortion access should be left to the states.
In Connecticut, abortion remains legal under state law. But the practice has been restricted in over 20 states since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2022 Dobbs decision.
On Tuesday, Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat, held a press conference at Planned Parenthood in New Haven and was joined by Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, state Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani and others concerned about abortion care and reproductive freedom in the state, and country.
Concerns over a national ban
Part of the Republican party’s new platform, its first since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision, highlights that the legality of abortion should be left up to the states, a stance that Vance has also voiced.
DeLauro, a Democrat, said Tuesday that federal lawmakers must push to restore the right to abortion care across the country.
“I will be working as hard as it takes to make sure we get there and that we do not slide further backwards in history,” DeLauro said. “We need to double, triple our efforts.”
But Jeff Santopietro, a Connecticut delegate in Milwaukee this week for the Republican National Convention, said “the Democrats need to get off of it.”
“I think that the president [Trump] has made his position fairly clear,” Santopietro said, “he's given back the rights to the states … keep the federal government out of it.”
The World Health Organization defines safe abortion care services as essential health care, and said restricting access to abortions doesn’t lower the amount performed, but “dramatically affects” whether abortions that are performed are safe.
The weight of more federal court cases
The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a recent case surrounding Idaho’s abortion ban on procedural grounds, essentially leaving open the possibility for the case to come back to federal court. Idaho v. United States threatened the legality of performing abortions when a patient’s life is at risk.
Dr. Nancy Stanwood, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood Southern New England, said the door being left open for abortion care restrictions even in the case of stabilizing a patient is chilling for providers.
“I know how painful it is for my colleagues in the states with abortion bans where their hands are tied when it comes to giving pregnant people the best care including emergency abortion care when needed,” she said. “I don't want to see our hands tied here in Connecticut.”
About 1% of people seeking abortion care at Connecticut's Planned Parenthood are coming from states with abortion bans, Stanwood said – and that number has increased since the Dobbs decision in 2022.
“It may be only 1% of the total care that Planned Parenthood is doing here in Connecticut, but that's 1% of people that could afford to do that,” Commissioner Juthani said. “What about all the people that couldn't afford to make a choice like that? That is inequity at its heart.”
Speakers also pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling to preserve access to the abortion medication mifepristone, sharing concerns about future attacks on abortion rights, including anti-abortion advocates bringing forward new plaintiffs.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” earlier this month, Vance said he supports access to mifepristone, according to NPR.
Efforts to expand Connecticut’s reach
This year, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England (PPSNE) started including telehealth for medication abortion in Connecticut and Rhode Island, which Stanwood said is especially important for people facing transportation or privacy barriers.
Gretchen Raffa, vice president of public policy, advocacy, and organizing at PPSNE, said there are ways abortion care could become even more accessible in Connecticut, with an eye on the next legislative session.
One of those efforts includes pushing for state law to protect health providers if access to emergency abortion care is threatened once again.
“So if a patient presents with a pregnancy complication in a health care institution that may have a refusal policy on the books, we want to pass state policy that will protect that health care provider that wants to deliver the standard of care for the patients that are presenting in any hospital in Connecticut,” Raffa said in an interview following the event.
Raffa said the state could also improve its abortion care in other ways, such as providing higher reimbursement rates for providers, and expanding Medicaid coverage for all people in the state regardless of immigration status.
In the 2024 session, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England received a one-time $3 million allocation of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. It was the only significant abortion measure Connecticut lawmakers tackled during the session.
Connecticut Public’s Matt Dwyer contributed reporting.
