The Connecticut House of Representatives passed a bipartisan bill on Tuesday that pro-life advocates say would effectively make the state a “sanctuary” for abortion by increasing protection for women who travel there for abortions, as well as their abortionists, from out-of-state lawsuits.
The bill, H.B. 5414, would also allow non-doctors to perform abortions, allowing advanced registered nurses, nurse-midwives and physician assistants to provide medication and aspiration abortions in the first trimester.
The legislation aims to combat strict abortion laws in other states by allowing people who face legal liability for violating other states’ abortion laws to sue for damages in Connecticut courts.
The bill aims “to provide protections for persons receiving and providing reproductive health care services in the state.” It would allow a person who “has had a judgment entered” against him or her in any state where liability is based on “the alleged provision, receipt, assistance in receipt or provision, material support for, or any theory of… liability… for reproductive health care services that are permitted under the laws of this state,” the person may “recover damages from any party that brought the action leading to that judgment.”
The state house passed the measure 87-60 following a two-hour debate, with 14 Democrats voting against it and seven Republicans voting in support of it, according to the Hartford Courant.
Connecticut’s Democratic governor, Ned Lamont, has vowed to sign the bill if it passes the Democrat-controlled state Senate.
The new legislation comes after Texas passed a law last year allowing private citizens to sue providers who perform abortions after a heartbeat can be detected.
While other state-level bans on abortion before 24 weeks have been blocked by the courts due to Supreme Court precedent, the Texas law has a unique enforcement mechanism that allows any individual to sue anyone who knowingly performs or aids in an abortion after a fetal heartbeat has been detected, removing the responsibility of enforcement from the state’s executive branch and placing it into the hands of citizens. Plaintiffs can earn up to $10,000 in damages through litigation.
However, women who receive an abortion cannot be sued under the Texas law.
The Connecticut bill aims to protect those who violate the Texas law, or similar laws in other states. The bill would also allow the state to protect the medical records of women who travel to the state for an abortion.
It comes as the Supreme Court is poised to issue a ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case that has allowed the justices to revisit Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion.
“The culture wars are lapping up across our shores here in Connecticut, and we’re standing together,” Lamont said on Tuesday. “We’re making sure that when it comes to our women, when it comes to our choice, when it comes to these cultural wars, we stand on behalf of the women in the state of Connecticut, and that’s not gonna change.”
Lamont told the CT Mirror, “We thought that women had the full range of reproductive choice, going back to Roe v. Wade, going back 50 years when I was young. And it’s incredible that it’s back on the front burner.”
The Family Institute of Connecticut wrote in a blog post that the bill would create a “safe harbor” for “abortion providers who violate abortion laws in other states.”
“HB 5414 would make Connecticut a sanctuary state for out-of-state abortionists who have broken the law in their own states,” it said.
“Connecticut is spending time and resources to protect doctors who may have broken the laws in other states while refusing to consider laws addressing parental notification or the 3 lawsuits pending against Planned Parenthood of Southern New England,” the post added.