Opinion: A problem with truth on reproductive rights

By Matt Blumenthal and Jillian Gilchrest 

Nov 1, 2024

They’re at it again: Another Greenwich Republican has attempted to obscure her dangerous positions on reproductive rights by misrepresenting the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act (RFDA). The RFDA is our state’s nation-leading law in defense of abortion rights and reproductive health care, which has now been adopted by 16 states and the District of Columbia. As co-chairs of the Reproductive Rights Caucus and the primary authors of the 2022 law, we will not allow falsehoods about it recently spread by Tina Courpas to stand uncorrected (Courpas is the Republican challenger in the 149th House District, which includes the northern portions of Greenwich and Stamford).

The Reproductive Freedom Defense Act increased access to reproductive health care and protects those who provide and receive it from out-of-state legal attack. That’s why every women’s rights and reproductive health care organization in our state — and pro-choice Republican legislators — supported it.

Instead of joining them, Courpas proclaims that she would oppose the RFDA and thereby allow extreme anti-choice states such as Texas to sue or prosecute Connecticut health care providers, residents, and those who come here for care. As politicians in places such as Texas, Missouri, and Idaho have made clear, this is no idle threat. To claim you’ll “support and defend current CT law” on reproductive rights when you oppose the current law that protects them isn’t just dead wrong — it’s deeply and cynically misleading.

Then there are the falsehoods. Courpas has claimed the RFDA was “opposed on health and safety grounds by medical professionals” and “the medical community does not yet agree on whether (its provisions are) safe.” These claims are false. To the contrary, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (the licensing organization responsible for physicians who provide obstetric care), the Connecticut Department of Public Health, the Chief of Yale School of Medicine’s Family Planning Section, and the Connecticut Hospital Association all supported the RFDA as improving health care quality, safety, and access. They were joined by a host of other organizations, experts, and providers, including Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, Reproductive Equity Now (formerly Pro-Choice CT/NARAL), and NOW-CT. These organizations’ support was discussed extensively in the RFDA’s floor debate.

Next, Courpas has repeatedly claimed Connecticut was “the first state in the nation to allow RNs and nurse midwives to perform abortions.” Where to begin? First, the RFDA does not apply to “RNs” (registered nurses) at all. Second, and more importantly, the RFDA made Connecticut the 16th — not the first — state in the nation to allow certain advanced health care practitioners, including APRNs, nurse-midwives, and PA-Cs, to perform first-trimester abortion care to the same standard of care as physicians.

Data from the 15 other states that previously passed the same measure shows that these practitioners have the same or better outcomes for this care compared to physicians. And data in the past two years shows the RFDA has increased the quality and safety of care by decreasing wait times. Abortion already is one of the safest medical procedures available.

That invites the question: Were these falsehoods the fruit of purposeful deception, or a failure to know the most basic facts before taking a position on a vitally important law? Either way, the answer is disqualifying for anyone running to serve in the state legislature.

Tina Courpas is entitled to oppose legislation protecting abortion rights in Connecticut. But she should not be allowed to misrepresent it to avoid accountability from voters for that position. The voters deserve to know the truth. The Reproductive Freedom Defense Act improves access to abortion care and protects reproductive health care in our state. Tina Courpas opposes it.

State Reps. Matt Blumenthal, D-Stamford, and Jillian Gilchrest, D-West Hartford, are the co-chairs of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Reproductive Rights Caucus.