Connecticut Democrats advance bill to protect out-of-state abortionists and trans medical industry

Democrats in Connecticut plan to expand the state’s “shield law” that protects nonresidents who perform abortions in Connecticut from legal prosecution when they “break the law” in their own pro-life states.

With a supermajority in the state Legislature, lawmakers advanced a bill (House Bill 7135) out of committee Friday by a party-line vote that would extend those legal protections to providers of both drug-induced abortions and transgender hormone drugs who perform their services via telemedicine. 

The Connecticut bill “will protect doctors who break the law in other states using telehealth technology to perform and/or solicit ‘gender affirming care’ procedures and abortions, even on minors,” Leslie Wolfgang, director of public policy at Family Institute of Connecticut, wrote 

“You will remember that a hearing was held last year to make a ‘technical fix’ to this law, to repair a drafting error made in the middle of the night when legislative leaders added ‘gender affirming care’ in a 2022 budget implementer bill,” she explained. “This was a subversion of the democratic process, but set that aside.” 

Wolfgang noted as well that added to “fix” the bill’s category of “reproductive services” were “protections for surrogacy, in-vitro fertilization, cryo-preservation of gametes (egg freezing) and everything related to ‘fertility.’”  

Stunned state Rep. Doug Dubitsky (R) observed the contrast presented in the “fixed” bill as the legislative Judiciary Committee debated.  

“I was going through this bill, and I swear I could not, for the life of me, fathom how this could be put together in such a way to say that reproductive health care services and gender-affirming health care services have the same meanings,” Dubitsky asserted. “It’s to ignore reality. It’s to ignore facts. One is to provide actual health care with regard to reproduction. The other, in many instances, is, is used to mutilate little children.” 

Eager to protect abortion rights in the state, Connecticut Democrats passed the first “shield law” in the country in advance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. 

Now they plan to expand the law to include telemedicine abortion and transgender services – even to minors. 

The bill was launched just weeks after a Louisiana woman pleaded not guilty in the wake of allegedly receiving abortion pills from a New York doctor and giving them to her pregnant daughter – a case that highlights the tension between pro-life and pro-abortion states. 

Democratic Committee Chairman Steve Stafstrom minimized the impacts of the shield law expansion bill, as CTNewsJunkie.com reported. 

 
“All it does is shield them from liability by another state if they perform or provide medical services in Connecticut that are authorized under Connecticut law,” he said. “It does not change what is authorized under Connecticut law.” 

During debate on the Connecticut bill, Republican Rep. Craig Fishbein addressed the issue of states’ rights. 

“Clearly in line 30 and 31 we are saying that this is an attempt to shield providers whether or not the patient was physically located in the state at the time services were provided,” he said. “So, certainly if another state doesn’t allow those services, but Connecticut does, we certainly control that licensing. We control by statute and regulation what they can and can’t do. Other states have those rights also.” 

“If someone wants to avail themselves of a right or service that is offered in Connecticut … move to Connecticut,” Fishbein recommended. “But that’s not what we have before us.” 

Katherine Sarris, who suffered with gender dysphoria, warned during the hearing that “proponents of this shield law expansion will cause already traumatized victims from out of state – mostly minors – to have to surmount nearly impossible hurdles as plaintiffs.” 

“In a couple of years, you are going to have a ton of young, angry people,” Sarris added. 

Wolfgang pulled no punches in her critique: 

“The abortion and gender extremists in Connecticut love the killing of nascent life and mutilating and sterilizing children so much that they are willing to protect others who break the law to do it. This is an outrage and would be considered a disreputable use of state resources if under another administration – but this is 2025, where these proposals are lauded and approved.”