The Connecticut law anticipates an increase in out-of state demand if Roe is overturned by Supreme Court. The legislation expands the scope of who can perform in-clinic procedures such as suction and aspiration abortions. This law joins just over a dozen others states with similar rules.
Amanda N. Skinner, the president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, said in an interview that there was already anecdotal evidence that some out-of-state patients were seeking abortions at her group’s Connecticut clinics, and providers anticipate more — and legal battles to come.
“We needed to do everything in our power to ensure that they feel as safe as possible coming to our community, and that our health care providers feel confident in their ability to provide care for people — regardless where they come from,” Ms. Skinner said. “The urgency of this moment is incredibly clear.”
The Guttmacher Institute is a research and policy group that supports abortion rights. It predicts that women who want to have an abortion would need to travel further to find a provider who can legally perform it. If the Roe protections are reaffirmed, a Ohio woman would have to travel 186 m to get a legal abortion. It is only 19 miles. Data shows that women in Texas and other restrictive states have flooded across state lines to obtain abortions elsewhere.
The State of Abortion In the U.S.
Who can get abortions in America? The typical patient is most likely already a mother, poor, unmarried, in her late 20s, has some college education and is very early in pregnancy. Today’s teens are having fewer abortions. Nearly half of all abortions occur within the first six weeks of pregnancy and almost all in the first trimester.
“The law lets abortion providers take solace and confidently provide care for their patients and worry less about these frivolous, vigilante lawsuits thrown at them,” said Katherine L. Kraschel, the executive director of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School. She testified in support for the Connecticut law. “But equally important is that we have enough providers able to provide abortion, given that we will probably have people seeking abortions from elsewhere.”
The new law was supported by both parties in Connecticut, where the right of Connecticut to have an abortion is a state law since 1990. The bill was approved by the state House of Representatives when several Republicans joined the Democratic majority. It was passed with a vote of 86-72. After hours of deliberation, state senators voted 25-9 for the bill’s passage after hours.
Critics say it violates long-standing norms of interstate cooperation. Abortion rights advocates claim that the Connecticut law could be a model for other states. And in an indication that the abortion issue does not break purely along party lines in Connecticut, more than a dozen Democrats — most from the Black and Puerto Rican caucus — voted against the measure.
Source: NY Times