During his State of the State address today, Gov. Ned Lamont tackled many topics ranging from legalizing marijuana to sports betting.
He also addressed the possibility of using state money to support programs like Planned Parenthood.
Addressing the General Assembly Wednesday, Lamont proposed a budget that could help support programs providing women’s reproductive health care.
“I think that everybody should have access to safe, reproductive health care. Safe and legal health care in general,” said Kelly Proulx of West Hartford.
In July the Trump administration said it would begin enforcing regulations that prohibit Title X grant recipients from counseling patients about abortion.
Instead of adhering to those rules, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England said it would stop accepting federal family planning funds. That means forfeiting about $2.1 million annually. Responding to Wednesday's announcement, they issued a statement that read in part.
“We are gratified to see the demonstrated commitment from Gov. Lamont and our elected leaders to support funding for continued access to preventive reproductive health care for the people of Connecticut who already struggle to get the care they need. We are committed to continuing to work with the administration and the General Assembly to put patients over politics and protect access to reproductive health care.”
Local
According to Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, there are 42,000 patients in Connecticut who relied on Title X to access essential services like birth control, cancer screenings, and wellness exams.
Receiving state money to supplement the federal shortfall is something people we spoke with seem to support.
“Personally I think that it’s important to fund programs like that,” said Megan Witcoskie of Avon. “I think everybody has the opportunity to make decisions for themselves and educating people to make decisions that are right for themselves, I think are important.”
