Greenwich's Delegation To Hartford Reacts To Abortion Ruling

GREENWICH, CT — In the wake of last Friday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, several members of Greenwich's delegation to Hartford have issued statements.

The following are statements from the delegation

State Rep. Kimberly Fiorello (R-149)

Via Facebook

[Friday's] Supreme Court decision rightly returns the regulation of abortion to the states. This proper interpretation of the U.S. Constitution reaffirms the people’s role in our federated republic. As a public servant in Connecticut, I advocate for abortions to be early, safe, legal and rare.

But the facts are that Connecticut’s extreme abortion laws hurt women, especially young and minority women.

We have no parental notification requirement for any minor, unlike Massachusetts and Rhode Island have. There is real concern that our state becomes a regional destination for abortions by minors, possibly brought here by abusers or criminals.

At the same time we isolate minors by having a structure around abortion that doesn’t include parents, we target faith-based pregnancy centers as being “deceptive”, threatening to take away the emotional and spiritual support women and girls need at such a vulnerable time.

In 2019, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) honored ABC Women’s Center in Middletown, CT, for the genuine and authentic care they gave to thousands of women in pregnancy, parenting and even post-abortive support! Yet, in 2021, we passed a law giving the Attorney General special powers to target faith-based pregnancy centers.

In Connecticut’s recent 2022 abortion bill, we codified allowing non-doctors to perform these procedures and surgeries even though it absolutely increases risks to women.

Please know that there is currently a lawsuit dated Nov 2021 against Planned Parenthood in Danbury alleging a non-doctor “certified nurse mid-wife” misdiagnosed a 22-week old baby as being a 6-week old, causing significant blood loss and emotional, psychological, and physical distress to the pregnant woman when the 22-week baby was aborted via mifepristone and misoprostol.

The recent 2022 bill even removed the word “woman” from state statutes. When asked why this text change was being made, the proponent said in effect because it is not only women who can get pregnant and have an abortion.

Still, most significantly, during the debate on the floor in the House and in the Senate, I listened to my minority Democrat colleagues speak about the real and true roots of racism and eugenics in abortion history, and its ongoing impact on girls, women and families in their communities. The air was still and you could hear a pin drop in the House during this debate. Many of the minority Democrats voted No on this bill, as did I.

Let’s recognize that the majority of Connecticut residents wrestle with the grave moral complexities of abortion.

At the same time, many do not want government interference in personal medical decisions.

We should strive to reduce the need for abortions by also focusing on resources for prevention, and support for choosing parenting or adoption. This is not a political issue, when we are talking about reducing the number of trips a woman or girl takes to see a doctor or non-doctor for serious medical and surgical procedures.

We need to stop treating those whose views differ from our own with disdain and hate, and instead work together to safeguard health and the opportunity to choose life for all girls and women in Connecticut.

State Rep. Stephen Meskers (D-150)

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said landmark high court rulings that established gay rights and contraception rights should be reconsidered now that the federal right to abortion has been revoked. We have unleashed a lunatic with the stacking of our court.

This week we have witnessed the most outlandish and foolish rulings by our Supreme Court. This group of bizarre ideologues has taken it upon themselves to support the gun lobby and promote the circulation of all types of deadly weapons in our cities. They also voted to deny women their right to reproductive freedom.

Freshly off the slaughter of children in Uvalde and a Senate finally showing some marginal backbone to the NRA our Supreme Court has sent me a clear message which is that the lives of our kids don’t really matter and that the women in our country don’t deserve the right to make reproductive decisions for themselves. The testimony they gave on settled law as they were interviewed for the job of Supreme Court Justice has proven to the worst kind of shameful chicanery.

State Sen. Ryan Fazio (R-36)

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs, it should be noted that abortion remains legal under Connecticut state law as it has been explicitly for over three decades. This policy will remain in effect after the Supreme Court’s decision. My colleagues in the legislature and I are not going to change that, and both candidates for governor have said the same. At the beginning of the last session, I also introduced legislation expanding access to contraception. The majority did not advance my bill, but I hope they will next term. I will always work with colleagues across the aisle to improve health care, safety, and make it easier to raise a family in our state.