WOMEN’S CAUCUS
Bipartisan group of 60 says it’s ready to shape policy.
HARTFORD — Women running for office in Connecticut made significant gains in 2018, and now they say they are ready to use their new clout to shape policy.
The legislature’s women’s caucus, made up of 60 female members of the House of Representatives and Senate from both political parties, met Tuesday to elect its leaders. The group did not release a list of legislative priorities, saying that will come later.
“It would be premature for us to give any type of agenda since we just had our organizational meeting today and we’re now going to be meeting as a full group,” said Rep. Dorinda Borer, a Democrat from West Haven who is one of the group’s co-chairwomen.
But the caucus signaled access to abortion will be one of its priorities by allowing Sarah Croucher, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut, to stand alongside the women lawmakers. NARAL has said it intends to press for a number of bills that seek to protect and expand access to abortion, including a provision to require private health insurance plans to cover abortion services without a copay and a proposal to make Connecticut the first state in the nation to regulate faith-based pregnancy centers that present themselves as health clinics that offer abortion services.
“At this press conference, it is not our intent to highlight any one issue over the other issues,” said Rep. Rosa Rebimbas, R-Naugatuck, the panel’s other cochairwomen. “Certainly we identify that there (are) many organizations out there that are related to women’s issues. ... We look forward to having those conversations with them. ... But the intent of this press conference is to introduce leadership.”
The majority of the legislature, including female lawmakers from both parties, support abortion rights. But some opponents of abortion rights who attended the news conference said they felt slighted by Croucher’s visible role.
“That shows where they stand,” said Lisa Maloney, who runs a faith-based pregnancy center in New London and is the president of the Connecticut Pregnancy Care Coalition, which represents 11 centers across the state. “It’s very evident that there’s more support for the NARAL position than for our position.”
The Connecticut legislature currently has 60 female members, after two women in the Senate — Terry Gerrantana and Beth Bye — resigned their seats to take jobs in the Lamont administration. That’s an increase of eight seats from two years ago, but far below parity.
The General Assembly is about one third female. Only one state — Nevada — has 50 percent female representation in its legislature, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In past sessions, the women’s caucus found bipartisan accord championing legislation addressing domestic violence and hu- man trafficking.
But the caucus members acknowledged they aren’t always going to agree on every issue.
“We work in a bipartisan manner,” said Rep. Themis Klarides, R-Derby, the only female leader among the four caucuses in the legislature.
“It doesn’t mean we’ll agree on everything but ... when we sit in a room, all of us, there is no ‘R’ and no ‘D’ after our names.”