by Coral Aponte
HARTFORD, CT – The Reproductive Rights Caucus is looking to “fight back” against the Trump administration to further protect Connecticut citizens against attacks on their reproductive health care and rights.
The bi-partisan caucus – now 40 members strong – held a news conference Tuesday highlighting their legislative priorities for this year.
The caucus co-chairs – Reps. Matt Blumenthal, D-Stamford, and Jillian Gilchrest, D-West Hartford – voiced their concerns on reproductive rights under the Trump administration.
“Reproductive rights and reproductive health care are under threat as never before,” Blumenthal said. “The Trump administration and its project 2025 are not only hostile to reproductive health care and reproductive choice but actively seek to attack it through the law and law enforcement.”
One way they say will protect reproductive health care is by strengthening the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act, which is the shield law enacted in 2022. It was the first of its kind in the nation and since its enactment, 16 other states have passed similar provisions, Blumenthal said.
The shield law protects from legal action the patients from states where abortion is illegal, as well as the Connecticut doctors who perform the procedures here in Connecticut.
Blumenthal noted the ongoing indictment of a New York doctor by authorities in Louisiana for prescribing an abortion pill to a Louisiana teen. Abortion is completely banned with limited exceptions in Louisiana, and its state constitution explicitly excludes abortion rights, whereas New York has a shield law, making the Louisiana case one of the first challenges to a shield law.
“We have to be cognizant and headstrong and fight back against attacks like this which attempt to intimidate our doctors, our nurses, our providers, our residents, and our people,” Blumenthal said.
He added that he is unaware of anyone being sued in Connecticut for similar charges but he partly believes that is because of the shield law already in place.
The caucus also is looking to add additional privacy protections on healthcare data as well as further protecting healthcare providers regardless of the location of a patient. In addition to passing the nation’s first shield law, Blumenthal said the caucus wants to make it the strongest.
Another law the caucus hopes to expand is House Bill 5197, which allows emergency contraception to be sold and dispensed in vending machines on college campuses. This legislation would give each campus $5,000 to install the machines.
Rep. Kate Farrar, D-West Hartford, spoke in support of the legislation on behalf of the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee.
With only the University of Connecticut campus offering emergency contraception vending machines so far, Farrar said the funding would hopefully pay for the machines at each institution.
“We see this effort to provide some startup funds to pursue the vending machine as a way of incentivizing more of them to get started on campuses across the state,” Farrar said.
In addition to strengthening the shield law and dedicating funding for access to emergency contraception, caucus members said they also hope to make reproductive health care readily accessible for all.
Rep. Dominique Johnson, D-Norwalk, spoke about the LGBTQ+ community and single individuals who experience barriers when it comes to fertility care.
To ensure access to all families, the equitable fertility care insurance coverage needs to “clearly” include LGBTQ+ and single people, Johnson said, adding that the legislation, as it stands, is discriminatory and what they’re trying to do is address the current definition of infertility, “which is an artifact of another time.”
In addition to these legislative priorities, the caucus is also looking to increase the Medicaid reimbursement rate for abortion services as well as the providers working in a private OB/GYN or family clinic. To further protect patients and providers, the caucus is looking to strengthen the Freedom of Access to Clinics law and the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Protections law.
Rep. Matt Blumenthal, D-Stamford, co-chair of the General Assembly’s Reproductive Rights Caucus, speaks to reporters during a news conference Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. Credit: Coral Aponte / CTNewsJunkie