Connecticut’s abortion laws are among the least restrictive of any state in the nation, people on both sides of the issue agree.
Its lawmakers in 1879 implemented a law making it a crime in the Constitution State to use “any drug, medicinal article, or instrument for the purposes of preventing contraception,”
according to PBS. But the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that law in 1965, concluding the ban violated the “right to marital privacy” and could not be enforced against married people.
The Supreme Court eight years later made the Roe v. Wade ruling giving women nationwide the right to an abortion while leaving state lawmakers to decide how strictly they wanted to regulate the procedure.
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Connecticut legislators have since amended the state’s laws in a manner that left it ranked as the nation’s third best state for reproductive rights
in 2015 by NARAL Pro-Choice America. NARAL gave Connecticut a grade of “A” for its reproductive rights laws.
Connecticut doesn’t impose any of the major types of abortion restrictions often found in other states, such as waiting periods, required parental notification, or limitations on publicly financed abortions,
according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Connecticut also allows partial-birth abortions, that website said.
The anti-abortion group
Americans United for Life, in a report released the same year, listed Connecticut as being the nation’s tenth least-protective state in terms of enacting anti-abortion legislation.
Reasons the AUL report gave as to why Connecticut was considered among the least-restrictive states included:
- Connecticut has in place a “Freedom of Choice Act” providing a right to abortion even if Roe v. Wade were overturned.
- Connecticut’s Supreme Court has concluded the state’s constitution provides a broader right to abortion than is provided by the U.S. Constitution.
- The state of Connecticut finances “medical necessary” abortions for women eligible for state medical assistance.
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