Connecticut passed a bill that will make the state a safe haven for abortion, Associated Press reports.
The Connecticut Senate gave final legislative approval to a bill that abortion rights advocates say is needed in order to protect in-state medical providers from legal action stemming from out-of-state laws, as well as the patients to travel to Connecticut for abortion and those who help them.
Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, the Democrat, said that lawmakers needed to pass the legislation in defense of their own values and their own legal systems. Connecticut has a long history of supporting abortion rights.
The state law comes after Texas enacted a law that authorizes lawsuits against clinics, doctors, and others who perform or facilitate a banned abortion, even in another state.
The Connecticut bill already cleared the House of Representatives earlier in April. Now that it has passed in the Senate, it will move onto Governor Ned Lamont’s desk. The Governor has already said he will sign it.
The bill comes as new abortion restrictions are being enacted in a growing number of conservative states. It also comes as a possibility of the U.S. Supreme Court may overturn or severely weaken Roe v. Wade, which was the landmark Supreme Court decision in 1973 that established a nationwide right to abortion.
Under the bill, state and local agencies would be prevented from cooperating in investigations and prosecutions of abortion providers in the state. Connecticut codified the Roe v. Wade decision in state law in 1990.
The bill also modifies Connecticut’s extradition statutes and prevents an out-of-state patient’s medical records from being disclosed.
It also allows an advanced practice registered nurse, nurse-midwife, or physician assistant to perform the most common in-clinic abortion types. This will help address a shortage of doctors in Connecticut that perform abortions, as well as cover a potential upcoming influx of women from out-of-state seeking the procedures.
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