Know Your Rights: Access to Abortion

In the state of Connecticut, abortion remains legal. This is due to state laws expanding access to abortion like the one passed earlier this year, a variety of court cases in the 1980s, and decades of advocacy from people throughout the state. Connecticut added an affirmative right to choose into its state law in 1990. Connecticut’s state law guaranteeing access to abortion is not affected by Dobbs. Abortion remains legal in Connecticut.

Connecticut laws protecting the legal right to abortion are strong, and the courts have already interpreted our state constitution as protecting abortion.

The 2022 Reproductive Freedom Defense Act, passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Lamont, updates Connecticut’s abortion law to allow trained, qualified advanced practice clinicians to perform aspiration abortion to serve our residents and anyone traveling to our state to access legal abortion. The law also protects patients and providers from targeted legal attacks by politicians in other states passing radical, extreme abortion bans. The ACLU of Connecticut testified in support of this law.

In 2001, the Connecticut Attorney General issued an opinion allowing APRNs (advance practice registered nurses) and PAs (physician’s assistants) to prescribe medication abortion.

In 1986, in a case brought by the ACLU of Connecticut on behalf of our anonymous client, Rosie J. Doe, and her physician, Marshall Holley, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the state’s ban on Medicaid coverage for abortion care was unconstitutional. The court held in that case that Connecticut’s ban on Medicaid (HUSKY) coverage for abortion violated the due process, equal protection, and equal rights amendments of Connecticut’s State Constitution.  

Today, improving abortion access is the area where people in our state most need elected officials to do more.

Even during Roe, we know that legal abortion rights do not always translate into access to abortion care, especially for people whom the government has most marginalized: women; LGBTQ+ people; Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other people of color; people who don’t have a lot of money; and people in rural areas. Abortion cannot truly be accessible unless everyone — in every corner of our country and our state — is able to access the care they need in their communities without barriers or stigma. To support abortion rights, we can all

1. Donate to local abortion funds;
2. Elect people who are ready to fight for the freedom to make our own decisions about our bodies and futures, including by stopping the Black maternal health crisis, improving abortion access and abortions, gender-affirming care, affirming people’s rights to marry marrying who we you love, and voting rights;
3. Attend protests to ensure your voice is heard by current elected officials to support access to abortion. You can download and print a poster here or here;
4. Write, call or text your elected officials to inform them of your support of abortion rights, let them know that you expect them to do even more to make reproductive freedome a true reality for everyone in Connecticut; 
5. Urge your state elected officials to do more to protect Black maternal health and make sure that all people in Connecticut who can become pregnant have accessible, affordable reproductive healthcare;
6. Follow us and our partners in the Connecticut Coalition for Choice on social media and join our email lists to get alerts about when to act. Our friends with Planned Parenthood Votes! Connecticut, Pro-Choice Connecticut, and CWEALF are good places to start.

Donate to Connecticut’s first abortion access fund: The REACH Fund is a non-profit organization that provides financial assistance for abortion care in Connecticut. REACH works directly with Connecticut abortion clinics to financially contribute to abortion care for those who cannot afford their out-of-pocket costs.

If you’re a patient who has an appointment to get an abortion in Connecticut, you can still get the care you need.

If you’re looking for abortion care, visit ineedana.com. If you need help getting an abortion, visit abortionfunds.org/need-abortion.

States like Connecticut that protect abortion access will now play an even more critical role in providing care to people from states that ban or severely restrict abortion. It is likely that people residing in states where abortion is illegal or severely restricted and who have access to funds to travel, will travel to Connecticut for abortion care.

These attacks won’t stop with abortion; the same politicians seeking to control the bodies of pregnant people are coming for our right to access birth control and gender-affirming care, and to marry whom we love. Just this year, nationwide, the same politicians seeking to ban abortion passed an unprecedented wave of laws to erase transgender youth from public life, including by criminalizing life-saving gender-affirming care. These politicians want to make critical decisions about your health, your identity, your relationships, your families, and your life for you. 

While many people may think of Connecticut as “safe,” we have seen politicians try these same attacks here. State legislatures and local governments are going to be even more crucial in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court turning its back on the fundamental human right of reproductive freedom. It’s on all of us to make sure Connecticut leads on advancing human rights.