Hartford Courant | CT debuting 24-hour abortion legal hotline; Tong: ‘What’s happening there … may very well happen here’

By Alison Cross | Originally Published by the Hartford Courant

As Democratic leaders brace for new abortion restrictions that could arise during President Donald Trump’s second term, reproductive rights advocates in Connecticut are launching a confidential hotline to connect health care providers and patients seeking reproductive services in the state with pro bono legal aid.

Attorney General William Tong and leaders from Reproductive Equity Now unveiling the Connecticut Abortion Legal Hotline in Hartford Friday painted a grim picture of women bleeding out from pregnancy complications, left to suffer in emergency room parking lots and even dying as a result of abortion bans that have become a reality in post-Roe America.

Tong presented the hotline as a new component strengthening Connecticut’s “firewall” for abortion rights. The 24-hour service, operated by Reproductive Equity Now, will connect patients and providers with attorneys in Connecticut to navigate legal challenges and access care in the nation’s ever-changing abortion rights landscape.

“We should not think for a second that what’s happening there can’t happen here, and I’m afraid to say that it may very well happen here, so that’s why we’re joined together and we have this hotline,” Tong said. “We’re going to do whatever they need us to do to help.”

Rebecca Hart Holder, the President of Reproductive Equity Now, said the “hotline will be a lifeline in a second hostile Trump administration.”

“Right now, patients need our support, providers need our guidance,” Hart Holder said. “This movement demands bold, innovative, tenacious, state-based leadership, and that’s why we are so proud to be fighting back against the chaos and confusion that anti-abortion politicians have sowed with a new resource to support patients, providers, and helpers here.”

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“We’re not oblivious to or impervious to the threats to abortion access that we will be facing at the national stage,” Hart Holder added. “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.”

Hart Holder said patients and health care providers who contact the hotline by leaving a voicemail at 833-309-6301 or filling out a secure online form at ReproEquityNow.org/hotline will receive a call or email back from the hotline’s team within two to three business days.

Hart Holder said Connecticut’s free and confidential service builds on the Massachusetts Abortion Legal Hotline. In the last 18 months, Hart Holder said the hotline has received more than 150 calls. She said she expects the number of inquiries to spike as new challenges to abortion access make headlines.

“We’ve heard on the hotlines questions like, ‘I’m an abortion provider helping a patient traveling from out of state. How do I protect the patient, and how do I protect myself?’ ‘I’m a patient traveling for care. How do I know I’m safe? Where can I go to make sure I can access legitimate care?’ ‘I’m the parent of a young person in a banned state, and I need to get them abortion care. How do I do it?’ or ‘I have had a negative experience with an anti-abortion center or Crisis Pregnancy Center. Can you please help me?’” Hart Holder explained.

“The point right now is confusion,” Hart Holder said. “Sometimes people say, ‘Is abortion even legal here? Can I get it?’ So sometimes we just need to direct them to the closest provider. But when a patient or a provider calls, we talk to them. And when we figure out it’s not an access issue, we distill down the legal issue and then we work with the bench of attorneys that we have to get them hooked up with the right attorney.”

Tong and Hart Holder encouraged lawyers and paralegals from “every practice area” to join the effort by contacting the attorney general’s office or Reproductive Equity Now.

“The range of questions that we get is huge,” Hart Holder said. “We have needed help on healthcare law, on tax law, on real estate and asset protection. People who specialize in telehealth have been incredibly important…unemployment law is another one.”

Over the last year, Connecticut has seen a nearly 150% increase in patients who come from out-of-state to receive an abortion, according to data from Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. While the increase is significant, patients from states with abortion bans or severe restrictions represent less than 1% of abortions in Connecticut.

Trump’s decisive victory in the 2024 presidential election, the Republicans’ reclamation of the Senate, and the increasing likelihood that the party will maintain its majority in the U.S. House of Representatives has shaken abortion-rights advocates who fear a nationwide abortion ban and other reproductive restrictions could emerge in the next four years.

With uncertainty on the horizon, activists and leaders in Connecticut say they are doubling down on efforts to safeguard individual rights and freedoms in the Constitution State.

“When people tell you who they are, it’s important to believe them,” Hart Holder said. “Attorney General (Ken) Paxton in Texas has made clear that he will go after the private health care records of patients. And there is a law on the books in Texas that allows … any person to file a lawsuit against a provider for offering abortion care. So we should very much anticipate that that is coming to all states.”

Tong said Connecticut’s Reproductive Rights Defense Act of 2022 provides a “firewall of protection” for patients and providers and clarifies that “abortion remains safe, legal and accessible here in Connecticut, and that the law will protect” out-of-state patients.

“It has a strong deterrent effect to people who want to come into Connecticut and attack people here in our state,” Tong said. However, the attorney general said he is still “scared” about what the future may bring.

“Roe fell because of Donald Trump, let’s just be clear about that,” Tong said. “They’ve shown us that they’re willing to go all the way on this issue, so we should not have any illusions about the risk to women, patients, doctors, nurses here in Connecticut and in our region.”

“We are going to be in this fight every single day, but we cannot do it alone,” Tong said.