The U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade oversteps the constitutional right of Americans to make their own healthcare decisions, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said.
Abortions remain legal in Connecticut, but more than a dozen other states have laws in place to ban the procedure in 30 days — half of states will seek to restrict, prohibit and criminalize patients and healthcare professionals who provide abortions.
Connecticut U.S Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy also expressed anger at the ruling.
But Lamont said he is grateful that Connecticut laws protect reproductive rights. It is clear that despite the Supreme Court decision women in Connecticut will still have the right to choose.
“It’s going to be law in Connecticut as long as we are here," the Democratic governor, who is running for reelection this year, told medical providers in front of a clinic in Hamden. "And we are going to be welcoming to anybody else that feels that they are not getting their fair shake in Texas, or Mississippi, or wherever else they may be — come to Connecticut, exercise your full reproductive choices."
Women at risk
Protesters started gathering early Friday afternoon on the New Haven Green to protest the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Connecticut officials comment on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization:
- Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz: “Governor Lamont and I want women across the country to know that Connecticut is a safe harbor, we will provide reproductive care to any woman who needs it, and we will protect the medical providers who provide that necessary care.”
- Attorney General William Tong: “We need to be ready to fight, because it’s crystal clear that marriage equality, access to birth control, interracial marriage, and the right to privacy and autonomy in so many more personal decisions will be tested.”
- Secretary of State Denise Merrill: "Today, the Supreme Court all but confirmed that women are nothing more than second-class citizens and that we are incapable of controlling our own lives or making decisions about our own bodies. ... I am proud that in Connecticut, we have taken steps to ensure that the right to choose to have an abortion will remain protected."
- State Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D, CT-03): “I am proud that Connecticut has proactively taken steps to protect the right to an abortion and has created a sanctuary for those seeking an abortion. We will continue to lead the way, but we cannot be complacent and assume these protections will last forever."
- Congresswoman Jahana Hayes (D, CT-05): “For decades, we have seen the right to choose under attack, and today, those rights have been stripped away in one swift decision. ... I will continue to fight so every person can make their personal health care decisions.”
Alicia Colley came with a sign reading: “You Cannot Ban Abortion, Only Safe Abortion”.
“Whether you believe in abortion or not, maybe in my perfect world abortion wouldn’t exist, but either way it’s going to happen, and the only difference in overturning this is that we don’t have access to safe abortion," she said.
"There will still be abortion, it’s not saving fetus’ quote end quote. It’s just putting women at risk”.
Kelly Marino, a history professor and the director of the Women’s Gender & Sexuality Program at Sacred Heart University said the Supreme Court ruling is a major inflection point for the women’s movement.
“I think this is going to be something that really galvanizes a lot of women’s rights activists and feminists in particular, and gets people to start mobilizing," Marino said.
She is also concerned the ruling will affect other rights enjoyed by Americans, including same-sex marriages, access to contraception, and more instances of equal treatment under the law.
“You know because some of the ideology that supported Roe v. Wade kind of was used to substantiate major political decisions so, the question is going to be now not just abortion, but what are the larger effects going to be on some of these other rights that we have," she said.
Post-Roe
A month ago, Lamont signed a first-in-the nation law that protects medical providers and patients seeking abortion care in Connecticut who may be traveling from other states.
Providers in the state said they have already seen an increase in such cases.
In Hartford, Senator Blumenthal said he is outraged that the court has, in essence, stripped women of the freedom to decide when and whether to have children and left that power in the hands of government officials.
“There will be no safe havens in America with a national ban on abortion and the United States Supreme Court has said today, 'that’s okay,'" he said. "Well, in my view, it’s not okay."
Connecticut voters can make their voices heard in the midterm elections this November, said Blumenthal, who is seeking reelection for a third term in the U.S. Senate this year.
“What we saw is six politicians masquerading as justices, trying to impose their political views on this nation,” Murphy said. “We clearly have a huge fight on our hands.”
