Newly-introduced legislation in Connecticut would allow non-physicians, including Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN) and nurse-midwives, to commit abortions. Abortion supporters claim that the bill, HB 5261 or An Act Increasing Access to Reproductive Health Care, is necessary because there is a lack of physicians willing to commit abortion in the state. For years, abortion numbers have been on the decline in the state.
The State of Abortion in Connecticut report states that there was a 32% decline in abortions between 2010 and 2019. According to CT Insider, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England (PPSNE) has had to close one-third of its abortion facilities within the state because there were not enough physicians to staff them. “That’s just one data point, but I think it’s a good example of the constraint on access to care that we are seeing,” PPSNE’s CEO and president Amanda Skinner said during public testimony in support of the bill.
Abortion is legal in Connecticut until the arbitrary age of viability, with the exception of abortion being allowed until 40 weeks if there is a risk to the mother’s health. However, deliberately killing a preborn child is never truly medically necessary. Delivering a preborn child by emergency C-section if the mother’s life or health is in danger takes about an hour. A second trimester abortion can take up to three days.
CT Mirror reports that Senator Jillian Gilchrest, the former executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut, explained that the legislation is necessary because women currently have to wait an average of 12 days for an aspiration abortion, a procedure used to kill a preborn child in the first trimester. In expanding who is allowed to commit abortions, she wants to reduce the wait-time and make Connecticut a lucrative abortion destination for women who might travel from elsewhere.
READ: Woman files suit after Planned Parenthood abortionist perforated her uterus and bowel
While many contend that abortion is a common procedure and everyday health care, in reality, a first-trimester surgical aspiration (suction) D&C abortion causes the preborn child to be torn apart as he is suctioned through a powerful tube out of his mother’s body. It carries the risk of incomplete abortion, which occurs when pieces of the child are left behind, injury to the uterus or cervix, hemorrhage, infection, future pregnancy complications, and even death. Likewise, a second-trimester D&E abortion procedure, which abortionists describe as “destructive and violent,” kills the child by dismemberment when the abortionist tears her arms and legs from her torso and removes them before crushing her skull. It carries the risk of cervical and uterine perforation, incomplete abortion, infection, hemorrhage, and death.
Allowing a medical provider who is not trained as a physician only increases the risk of injury to women who undergo these dangerous procedures.
According to CT Insider, The Connecticut State Medical Society said it believes in greater expansion of reproductive health access, but even it cautioned against the bill. “We head down the slippery slope to allowing those procedures that are in fact surgical to be done by mid-level providers, creating patient safety concerns and significant scope of practice issues,” the organization said in a statement.
Connecticut has long been one of the most abortion-friendly states in the nation, yet that hasn’t stopped lawmakers from trying to continue to cement the state’s strong abortion standing. In addition to this bill, legislators are also working to pass laws that would include the right to abortion in the state constitution, and one that would make the state a “safe haven” for criminal abortionists who have broken abortion-related laws in other states.
This legislation also comes as PPSNE is facing several serious allegations that it has endangered the lives of its patients within the state. In one instance, its alleged misdiagnosis and medical negligence led to the death of a 22-week old preborn baby and caused the emotional, psychological, and physical distress of his mother. Another lawsuit contends that the abortion provider failed to notice that an IUD patient was 14 weeks pregnant. If anything, these serious allegations prove that more oversight is needed of the state’s abortion facilities — not an expansion of who can commit abortions.
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