Fox61 | AG Tong, abortion rights groups announce abortion hotline

Image links to video footage from Fox 61.

By Leah Myers and Tricia Ennis | Originally Published by Fox 61

HARTFORD, Conn. — A hotline made up of legal experts providing support and information on abortion services has launched in Connecticut.

The Abortion Legal Hotline from the Reproductive Equity Now Foundation has partnered with law firms in the state to provide free and confidential legal advice and information on abortion services. This is part of the Foundation's effort to help patients from out of state to Connecticut and the New England area to seek abortion care.

The program is supported by the Connecticut Attorney General's Office, though Attorney General Tong was careful to point out that it was not being run by the state. 

"This is run by Reproductive Equity Now in the private sector. People who who are not subject to the same restrictions and obligations as state government," he said. "My guess is that having a -- not government run but government supported and assisted -- hotline is a better setup in that people will feel less worried or concerned about reaching out to a government institution."

This hotline came out of ongoing concerns that states other than Connecticut could prosecute patients seeking care in the state and the providers who assist them. AG Tong said that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is diving into the health records of residents and going after those who have sought out abortions in and out of the state of Texas.

"Ken is going after health care, records of women who seek health care in reproductive health care and abortions outside of Texas. And he's going after them," he said, relaying a conversation he had with Tish James, his counterpart in New York State. "He's not the first by the way, but he's using the enormous power of the state of Texas to do that."

The hotline is the latest attempt by Connecticut stakeholders to protect patients and providers. Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the state legislature passed a "safe haven" law that provided a legal cause-of-action for Connecticut providers who were sued under Texas' law. 

The hotline expands on that protection, offering pro bono legal advice to people in Connecticut who could be affected by laws in other states. 

"This hotline is an expansion of the Massachusetts abortion legal hotline which has already helped connect more than 150 patients and providers with the support they need to access and provide care," said Rebecca Hart Holder, CEO of Reproductive Equity Now, who are spearheading the initiative. "We need patients and providers in Connecticut to also get and offer care with confidence that they will be backed up by an extraordinary legal community."

"It's about inviting a broader community of advocates and lawyers to help us in this fight, to build what I have been talking for or to strengthen frankly, what I have been talking about for the last six years," said Tong. "The firewall that all of us are joined together in to protect women, patients, doctors and nurses, our neighbors, our friends, our family, not somebody else, the people that we love."

To contact a legal expert, the hotline number is 833-309-6301 or fill out the secure online form on their website.