NBC Connecticut | Connecticut launches hotline for legal advice about abortions

By Melissa Cooney | Originally Published by NBC Connecticut

Legal advice about access and providing legal abortions in Connecticut is now one phone call away.

Connecticut Attorney General Tong announced a partnership with the organization Reproductive Equity Now.

They're launching a hotline in response to the election, which they say is creating uncertainty in the national abortion access landscape. The hotline is: 833-309-6301.

“It's our fight. It's our shared responsibility. We are in it together. It's not somebody else's problem,” Tong said.

According to Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, Connecticut saw a 150% increase in patients traveling in from out-of-state to seek abortion care this year.

Thats why they want to provide a hotline for people in and out-of-state to get free legal advice on abortions in Connecticut.

"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?'” Rebecca Hart Holder of Reproductive Equity Now said.

It’s an expansion of a Massachusetts hotline, which is paid for and run by Reproductive Equity Now, which they say has seen 150 calls in 18 months.

The state previously launched a hotline in 2022 after Roe vs. Wade was overturned, but that’s no longer in use.

Tong said it was hard to spread the word.

"My guess is that having a not government-run, but government-supported and assisted hotline is a better setup, and then people will feel less worried or concerned,” Tong said.

Advocates of the hotline say the goal is to provide clarity for those receiving and providing care.

"For many of our patients, the barriers to accessing care are real and significant. Some travel long distances, face financial and social challenges or worry about legal restrictions of their care,” Eleanor Faraguna, a patient care specialist at the Hartford GYN Center, said.

Some Right to Life organizations disagree with the hotline.

In a statement, the Family Institute of Connecticut Action says in part:

"Attorney General Tong’s abortion hotline is "Exhibit A" for why President Trump is returning to power. Voters are concerned about grocery bills and rising crime, not some nonexistent threat to abortion.”

The Connecticut Catholic Conference says:

“Attorney General Tong knows a similar hotline was set up by the legislature a year ago and was discontinued for lack of interest. Tong’s actions here add to a culture of death in our state rather than seeking ways to preserve life from natural conception to natural end.”

Abortion is legal in all six New England states, including Connecticut.