Connecticut shifts fight for abortion rights to first-in-nation regional model. ‘Going on offense’

With reproductive freedoms at risk across the U.S., abortion rights activists announced Tuesday that Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire will form the nation’s first regional model for reproductive health care advocacy.

Pro-Choice Connecticut will sunset this month to join Massachusetts-based Reproductive Equity Now as it expands into Connecticut and New Hampshire, Liz Gustafson, director of Pro-Choice Connecticut and future Connecticut state director for Reproductive Equity Now, said at a press conference outside the State Capitol Tuesday.

While multistate coalitions have and continue to fight for abortion access, Reproductive Equity Now will be the first regional organization pursuing the same goal.

“The threat of a national ban is real and all of our states would be remiss if we weren’t constantly preparing for that threat to become a reality,” Reproductive Equity Now President Rebecca Hart Holder said. “When the Supreme Court overturned our constitutional right to abortion last June, they handed our bodily autonomy over to state governments, and with that power, anti-abortion extremists have dramatically and devastatingly altered the abortion access landscape nationwide. And now our strategies to expand access have to be altered too.”

Hart Holder and Gustafson said that as anti-abortion groups have succeeded in creating “regional abortion access desserts,” it is time for states to pool political power and build regional blocks where abortion health care is protected. They said they hope Reproductive Equity Now can serve as a model for the country.

“Our strategic intervention throughout New England will not only build power and expand access to care in the region, but will help ensure people beyond our borders can access the care that they want and that they need,” Gustafson said. “Connecticut and New England must meet this fight with a bold and expanded vision for what reproductive equity can look like, and we have an obligation and an opportunity to be a beacon of reproductive freedom.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said the nationwide attack on women’s right to choose an abortion makes it necessary “to have not just a state refuge, but a regional refuge.”

Blumenthal said that he believes Reproductive Equity Now’s regional model will help pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, Right to Contraception Act and the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act.

“These kinds of fundamental protections will be advanced by this regional coalition,” Blumenthal said. “We’re going to be the model for the whole nation. We’re going to provide an impetus for action in Washington D.C. We’ve going to inspire and provide impetus for advocates across the country.”

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong welcomed the strategic shift in advocacy.

“This is about going on offense,” Tong said. “We’re not playing defense anymore.”

“We will not stop until fundamental human rights are restored to every woman and patient in this country,” Tong added.

Tuesday’s press conference was also attended by Connecticut’s anti-abortion leaders who spoke against Reproductive Equity Now and abortion-rights allies.

“This group is not about equity, it’s not about freedom, it’s about abortion,” Peter Wolfgang, the president of Family Institute of Connecticut said. “Freedom in the mouths of abortion advocates really means coercion. It’s about abortion for all. They want everybody to pay for it.”

“The people of the state of Connecticut, I don’t think, are as extreme as the groups that you just heard speak today,” Wolfgang added. “They may be vaguely pro-choice, but they’re not completely in with everything that these guys are pushing, and I think there will be a lot of resistance to the radical aims of their agendas.”

Wolfgang said that his organization will continue to fight until “every unborn child” is protected in law and life.

“The idea that wanting to protect innocent life is extreme, it just shows you how truly, sadly out of touch these people are,” Christopher Healy the executive director of the Connecticut Catholic Conference said. “These organizations are the extremists. They believe abortion should be on demand up until the time of birth, that minors should be allowed to have abortions without parents being informed.”

In Connecticut and the U.S., late-term abortions are rare. In 2020, more than 93% of abortions occurred within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Less than 1% occurred at 21 weeks or more.

Healy said that making Connecticut a “sanctuary city” for abortion care is bad public policy.

“Polls show that people want some reasonable limits on abortion,” Healy said.

Healy said that advocacy efforts should instead focus on common ground causes like women’s health care.

He said that pregnancy crisis centers “actually offer health care to women who are considering bringing children to the world. And we should be talking about more options for that.”

But Hart Holder said pregnancy crisis centers are a major threat to abortion access in states where the procedure remains legal.

“Those centers are the foot soldiers of the anti-abortion movement trying to spread misinformation and lies to people who have an unintended pregnancy,” Hart Holder said.

In Connecticut, Gustafson said, legislators prohibited deceptive advertising at Crisis Pregnancy Centers, enhanced data privacy protections and eliminated certain barriers to accessing emergency contraception and birth control. But she emphasized that the work is not complete.

“There is still so much work to do to break down barriers to care because legality has never meant access. And this is especially true for Black, Brown, LGBTQ+ plus and young people,” Gustafson said.