Reproductive Equity Now’s 2026
Connecticut
Legislative Agenda!
Our 2026 Priorities:
During the 2026 legislative session in Connecticut, Reproductive Equity Now is committed to ensuring the Nutmeg State protects and expands access to reproductive health care for all residents.
That’s why our legislative priorities center on bolstering our shield law protections, expanding access to reproductive and gender-affirming care, and advancing cross-movement coalition work.
Our 2026 Connecticut Legislative Agenda:
1) Bolstering Our Shield Law to Protect Providers
In the wake of the Dobbs decision, the Connecticut Legislature passed the nation’s first shield law to protect providers and those seeking care in Connecticut. Now, the state has the opportunity to go further and bolster our shield law with key provisions that will protect our providers, who go above and beyond to provide high-quality, compassionate reproductive health care services each and every day.
Policies We’re Pushing Forward:
-
Connecticut has the opportunity to explicitly protect providers who may be willing to provide medication abortion via telehealth to out-of-state patients. By strengthening our shield law to offer a layer of protection for providers dedicated to providing abortion care regardless of a patient’s location, we can continue to expand access to safe and compassionate abortion care nationwide.
-
Across the country, efforts to criminalize abortion care—and its providers—are ever evolving, with providers facing both criminal and civil threats from varying states. Specifically, charges filed against a New York provider for allegedly mailing medication abortion pills across state lines originated by identifying this provider from their name on the medication’s prescription label. By allowing providers to remove their individual name from this label, and instead include their practice name, we can help protect them from the harmful reach of out-of-state actors as they take on the risk to provide high-quality, compassionate abortion care to patients regardless of their zip code.
-
Administered by the Secretary of State’s Office, the Address Confidentiality Program was established in 2004 to support victims of crime by providing a mail forwarding service to keep new addresses confidential and private. By expanding eligibility for this program to providers of reproductive and gender-affirming health care services and verified volunteers, Connecticut can offer an added layer of confidentiality for these individuals and their families.
2) Protecting Patient Access to Reproductive & Gender-Affirming Health Care
Reproductive Equity Now is committed to safeguarding equitable access to high-quality, comprehensive, and affirming health care for all patients in Connecticut. As political attacks on abortion care and gender-affirming care intensify nationwide, we are working to ensure that patients, providers, and support networks are protected from interference, criminalization, and misinformation.
Policies We’re Pushing Forward:
-
As we continue to see threats to bodily autonomy at the federal level, Connecticut stands apart as a leader in protecting and expanding access to reproductive health care. However, refusal laws allow any provider or health care professional involved in patient care to refuse that care based on their religious or conscientious objection. To combat this barrier to care in the state, Connecticut can act to ensure health care institutions, such as religiously affiliated hospitals, do not prohibit providers from providing medically-accurate information regarding a patient’s health status, counseling, and referrals for care that may not align with an institution’s moral or religious beliefs.
3) Supporting Coalition Partners
Reproductive Equity Now is proud to stand in coalition with our advocacy partners to work towards equitable access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care for each and every person without barriers.
Policies We’re Supporting:
-
Family Planning Clinic Medicaid rates for abortion services are unchanged since 2008, yet labor costs have continued to increase. Increasing family planning clinic Medicaid rates for abortion services will strengthen patients' long-term access to essential, time-sensitive health care– and ensure our state’s providers, including Hartford GYN Center and Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, can continue providing compassionate care. An investment in family planning clinics and abortion providers is an investment in the ecosystem of care.
-
Reproductive Equity Now is proud to be a member of the HUSKY 4 Immigrants Coalition.
Connecticut has taken major steps to expand access to HUSKY eligibility for prenatal and postpartum care up to 12 months, and for children up to 15 years old, regardless of immigration status. Now, the state must respond to actions by the federal government, and ensure all income eligible residents are able to access the health care coverage they need, regardless of immigration status. Access to health care is a human right, and no one should be denied life-saving care because of their immigration status.
-
Reproductive Equity Now is proud to support the ongoing efforts led by the FACT Campaign.
The decision about if, when, or how to become a parent is one of the most important life decisions we make, and everyone should be able to make that choice without barriers – which includes equitable access to fertility care and assisted reproductive technologies. In addition to expanding insurance coverage of care, including medicaid coverage—Connecticut can take action to remove barriers to fertility care and assisted reproductive technologies for LGBTQ+ people and single individuals by updating the definition of ‘infertility’ in state statute. Expanded coverage would align with Connecticut Comptroller Sean Scalon’s change to expand fertility coverage for the Connecticut state employees plan.
Sign up for action alerts!
Take action with Reproductive Equity Now to advance bold repro policy in Connecticut