Connecticut lawmakers and Gov. Ned Lamont, D-Conn., appear ready to make the state a safe harbor for abortion seekers and providers.
The state House last week passed HB 5414 by a vote of 87-60, with 14 Democrats voting against the bill and seven Republicans supporting it.
The abortion rights bill, which Lamont has signaled he will sign, now goes to the Democrat-led state Senate, the Washington Examiner reported. The bill is intended to broaden access to abortions, and strengthen legal protections.
The Connecticut bill is in response to laws in Texas and Idaho that ban abortions early in gestation and are enforced by private citizens.
If the bill becomes law, Connecticut state courts would be barred from enforcing penalties set by courts in other states and would protect anyone who performed or facilitated an abortion in the state.
The bill also would allow Connecticut to protect the medical records of women who travel to the state from other states such as Texas or Louisiana.
Under current law, if an abortion provider flees to Connecticut after being found guilty in Texas and ordered to pay $10,000, Connecticut would be required to send that person back to Texas to face the consequences.
A Texas law that makes it a felony to provide abortion medications after seven weeks of pregnancy went into effect in early December.
Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, signed the law in May. The law allows anyone — even someone outside Texas — to sue an abortion provider or anyone else who may have helped someone get an abortion after the limit, and seek financial damages of up to $10,000 per defendant.
Gov. Brad Little, R-Idaho, last month signed a law modeled after the Texas statute.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., earlier this month signed a 15-week abortion ban into law.
The Supreme Court in early December heard arguments in a Mississippi case in which the justices are being asked to overrule the court's historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion and its 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed Roe.
Under those decisions, states can regulate but not ban abortion up until the point of viability, at roughly 24 weeks.
The Connecticut bill would go into effect on July 1, 2022, soon after the Supreme Court is due to rule on the Mississippi case regarding a 15-week ban on abortion.
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