CT Insider | CT sees 150% increase in people coming from out of state for abortion care, officials say

By Cris Villalonga-Vivoni | Originally Published by CT Insider

In 2023, there was about a 60 percent increase in people coming to Connecticut for an abortion, while this year saw a 150 percent increase, said Dr. Nancy Stanwood, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. 

The justices' decision, which resulted in more than 20 states implementing abortion bans, resulted in one in three women across the U.S. losing access to abortion care, said U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., at a recent reproductive health roundtable. 

It also cast doubts for those looking to get and offer reproductive care heading into the elections in November, prompting advocates, health care providers and legislators to call for more to be done to protect and expand access, even in Connecticut.

"There's no way for Connecticut to completely insulate ourselves from this because…there are broader implications," Murphy said. 

More students from other states are also applying to study medicine in Connecticut.

At the University of Connecticut, there's been an influx in the number of out-of-state medical students looking to enroll because of its focus on abortion care, said Dr. Neena Qasba, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and the division director of family planning at UConn Health. 

She said abortion training is integrated into the residency training for Obstetricians and Gynecologists at UConn Health since abortion care entails more than just the actual procedure. It might sometimes include miscarriage management and other more advanced methods, she said. 

Stanwood said only half of the medical students across the U.S. will be adequately trained in abortion care if the bans continue, which will impact access to care in the future. 

Several experts also said the Supreme Court's recent decision to allow Idaho hospitals to provide emergency abortions, wasn't a true victory. 

Coleman said the Supreme Court's ruling leaves the door open for the justices and states to continue limiting other forms of healthcare, like contraceptives and gender-affirming care. 

Stanwood described the justices' decision as "a moral failing," adding they had an opportunity to make it "loud and clear" for all states that abortion can be used in emergencies to protect the patient's life. She said medical providers must be able to make the safest medical decisions for their patients without additional legal restrictions. 

"Do not tie our hands," Stanwood said. "Our hands need to be free to take care of patients in an emergency crisis." 

Once it became clear that Roe would be overturned, state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, D-West Hartford, said she and the other members of the Reproductive Rights Caucus quickly moved to protect and expand abortion care access in Connecticut. These changes included allowing all medical providers to perform abortions and expanding Medicaid to cover abortions. 

She still wants to raise Medicaid rates, allow abortions at any stage of pregnancy and strengthen protections for providers to give patients abortion resources while working in religiously affiliated hospitals. Fertility coverage laws also need an update since they only apply to heterosexual couples and Medicaid doesn't cover the care, Gilchrest said. 

Gilchrest said more needed to be done to address the rising maternal mortality, especially among Black women. Some of the initiatives legislators were working on include a maternity health bundle and Medicaid coverage for maternity community health workers, but she said there's been some pushback. 

Although Connecticut is a safe haven, it has abortion restrictions, said Alyce Coleman, board president of the REACH Fund CT. She encountered the restriction recently after the fund paid $6,000 to help a Connecticut patient who was over 24 weeks pregnant get an abortion in New Jersey due to the law. 

She added that Connecticut does not mandate sex education, which should be amended. She also highlighted the need for more resources to address the other social determinants of health, such as food insecurity and the housing crisis, which impact residents' lives. 

"Everyone is struggling to pay for not just healthcare but housing and food. Everything is just going up and up, and people are really suffering out here. The resources are not there," she said. "It does feel like we are not being heard. Sometimes it feels like we are being used. We want a plan. We need a plan." 

The people most immediately impacted by any abortion ban are those who don't have the financial means or sufficient healthcare coverage to travel across state lines for care, Coleman said. She said this includes trans and non-binary folks, people of color and immigrants. 

The access to abortion also impacts the economic stability of women, said Dr. Djana Harp, chief medical Officer of Norwalk Community Health Center. She said a woman's financial standing is influenced by her decision to have children. However, abortion bans will force people to have children when they can't financially afford it, committing them and their children to poverty. 

"It not only becomes a racial issue but also an economic injustice issue," she said. "If we really think about it even more broadly, it's more and more a systemic dismantling and disempowerment of women in general."

On an interpersonal level, the abortion ban works to criminalize and further stigmatize the procedure and abortion medication more than it already is, said Liz Gustafson, the Connecticut state director of Reproductive Equity Now.  

When she had her abortion, her friend was concerned about her well-being when she couldn't reach Gustafson the following day and the police showed up for a wellness check, she said. Even now, Gustafson said she still feels the internalized shame and stigma of having an abortion. 

"We have stigmatized abortion so much she didn't know how safe it was," she said. "I don't blame her. She was just being a good friend, but that's also how people in states with abortion bans, even before Roe, were criminalized because we haven't talked about (abortion) and made mainstream how safe and effective medication abortion is." 

Murphy said the "radical right" and Republican Party have indicated that they plan to move forward with more reproductive health care restrictions if presented with the opportunity. He said the party would attempt to pass a national abortion ban if they win both the House of Representatives and Senate in November. 

He argued in-vitro fertilization, contraceptives and birth control were also in jeopardy, evidenced by the Right to Contraception Act not passing, which would codify protections for contraceptives and IVF. 

"The legislation died on the Senate floor because we couldn't get any Republican support for it," Murphy said. "Unfortunately, I think that's a pretty clear signal."