While Republicans are sending mixed signals on abortion—omitting a federal abortion ban from their convention platform despite the stated intent of many Republicans to achieve such a ban—Democrats like Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) say Republicans’ goals are clear and that reproductive rights are absolutely on the November ballot.
“It is a dangerous time,” says DeLauro, who appeared Tuesday at Planned Parenthood of Southern New England in New Haven, claiming that Republicans are seeking to restrict reproductive rights in many ways, targeting abortion, medication abortion and even in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and contraception.
She says Project 2025, the game plan for a potential second presidential term for Donald Trump, would restrict reproductive freedom in several ways, including a ban on medication abortion. Vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance has called for a federal abortion ban and has opposed abortion in all cases, including rape and incense.
DeLauro says Vance has now softened his stances to appeal to a more moderate public: “He, as well as our former president, have changed their views because they understand you cannot win in the court of public opinion.”
DeLauro says even if Republicans achieved a federal ban, “Abortion will not end, but it will be more dangerous for women who are seeking it.”
Speaking at the same event, the chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of Southern New England said life is already dangerous for women in 21 states where abortion is banned-- and her office is seeing the impact of those bans.
“It is clear that some politicians would rather let people suffer and die then get the emergency care that they need,” says Dr. Nancy Stanwood.
She says that over the last year, her offices have seen a 147% increase in cases coming to Connecticut from out of state, and that she’s seeing a wide variation of patients. In one day, she reports, she treated a “skinny teen” from the South, a pediatrician from the South and a mother of four from the Midwest.
Many other patients don’t have the resources to make the trip. Stanwood describes one who did: “It’s somebody who traveled from a Southern state who was pregnant from sexual assault and had to leave her home state to get abortion care. She was fortunate to have family in Connecticut who was supportive of her and had the resources to travel. But it was heartbreaking to see what she had to go through in order to get basic healthcare at a time of terrible emotional distress. She was experiencing the early phases of PTSD from sexual assault and she had to navigate getting on a plane to get basic healthcare. The bans are cruel in their impact, and I really hope people can see that. Cruelty is the point.”