Connecticut has responded to various states passing laws limiting abortions within those states by promising to become a “refuge” for abortion providers and seekers.
The Stamford Advocate reports:
The state Senate late Friday approved an expansion of reproductive rights that could make Connecticut a refuge for women from around the nation seeking abortions at a time when conservative state governments are curtailing rights in the culture wars.The 25-9 vote belied the tension in the Capitol during a three-hour debate in which Black Democratic senators including Marilyn Moore of Bridgeport and Patricia Billie Miller of Stamford joined conservative Republicans in opposing the bill.If signed into law by the governor, it would protect medical personnel who perform abortions in Connecticut from legal action from states where abortion has been restricted or banned. It would also limit the governor’s extradition authority in cases where other states, such as Texas, try to punish Connecticut medical professionals from across state lines.It would also allow nurse-midwives, advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants certified in the procedures, to perform abortions.
I wonder if “You don’t need a doctor; just about anyone in Connecticut can perform abortions! Book your visit today!” is going to be the new tourism motto?
Apparently, the Connecticut constitution has long been adapted to include Roe v. Wade “rights.”
The Stamford Advocate continues:
“Connecticut has been a state that has thought about the issue of abortion in such a way that in 1990 we codified Roe, offering protections to people in this state,” said Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who led the debate along with Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, a physician who is co-chairman of the Public Health Committee.“But as we are here in 2022, there is the thought that the Supreme Court may act in a way that some of the protections that we see afforded to people here in the state of Connecticut, will not be afforded to people in other places,” Winfield said. “This means that we have to think about what we will do when that time comes. And we have to think about what we’re going to do right now, given what’s happened in other states.”“We have to stand up. We cannot take anything for granted,” Anwar said, stressing that five years ago he would not have believed the extent to which some states are preventing reproductive rights in 2022. “Forty nine years ago this was settled. It’s unfortunate that at this time those rights are under threat.”
The debate surrounding the bill was apparently rather long and emotional. One of the more effective opponents to the bill was Democrat Sen. Patricia Billie Miller.
Sen. Patricia Billie Miller, a Stamford Democrat, and others talked passionately on the Senate floor about Margaret Sanger, the founding of Planned Parenthood and the history of abortion.“Babies were ripped from Black mothers, African mothers, during slavery,” she said. “That’s the history that Black women and Native American women have had to endure. … There’s no way that I can accept a system that would intentionally take a baby from a mother. … Yes, they sterilized men, too. It wasn’t just women.”Miller noted that legislators often say that the brain is still developing until age 25 when they talk about issues like juvenile justice.“We’re saying if an 18-year-old wants to have an abortion, she can do that. … That gives me pause,” Miller said. “My friends who had abortions at 18 … and it still bothers them. … I will not stand here and support a system that was designed to take advantage of people who didn’t know any better.”She said that some women who are now in their 60s and 70s are still depressed about having an abortion decades earlier.“I know I’m not going to be the most popular person after tonight,” Miller told her colleagues. “[McGee] said, in the black community, abortions are birth control. That’s true. … I hear family planning — code word for abortion. Why can’t it be a code word for planning your family?
The left is worried that Roe v. Wade will be overturned (and very worried that no one seems to care). If it is, you can bet the left will suddenly discover states rights and champion the 10th Amendment.
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