Stefanowski comments on state abortion law
Gov. Ned Lamont this week challenged his Republican opponent, Bob Stefanowski, to break his silence and take a position on the abortion rights bill that recently passed with the support of Stefanowski’s running mate, state Rep. Laura Devlin of Fairfield.
“I think that any candidate for governor has got to speak up and let us know where you stand,” Lamont said this week at a ceremonial signing of the bill outside the Capitol. “What have I heard from the Republican candidate for governor? Crickets.”
Stefanowski had remained silent on House Bill 5414 in the three weeks since it cleared the House of Representatives on an 87-60 vote, with Devlin and six
other Republicans voting with 80 Democrats in support.
The measure provides a “safe harbor” to women from states with restrictive abortion laws who get abortions in Connecticut, as well as the clinicians who provide them.
It also conforms state law with a 21-year-old legal opinion permitting APRNS, nurse midwives and physicians’ assistants to perform first-trimester abortions by suction, the most common type of early abortion.
Stefanowski’s only comment on abortion in recent weeks had been a suggestion that abortion was not an issue in Connecticut.
He responded cautiously to the leak of a draft opinion that indicated a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court had taken at least an early vote on overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case that legalized abortion.
“The leaked Supreme Court opinion doesn’t change anything here in Connecticut. In Connecticut, a woman’s right to choose is fully protected under state law,” Stefanowski said last week in a written statement.
Stefanowski’s campaign said Tuesday that he had no further comment.
On Wednesday, however, his campaign released a new statement.
“The unauthorized leak of a draft Supreme Court decision on Roe vs. Wade, has resulted in a renewed discussion on the critical and intensely personal issue of abortion across our country,” he said in the statement. “While discussions in many states will likely continue over the summer, it is important for Connecticut residents to remember that the right to an abortion was codified into Connecticut state law over 30 years ago and regardless of what the Supreme Court decides this right will remain in effect in our state.
“Further, under no circumstances will I as Governor attempt to change the existing law. A woman’s right to choose has been, is, and will remain codified in Connecticut State Law, including Connecticut’s ban on late term abortions except in the case where the mother’s health is at risk,” the statement said.
The statement also said the candidate think Connecticut should consider a parental notification requirement for minors under 16 seeking an abortion, “except in the case of rape or incest. This requirement is already in place for most medical procedures performed on minors and abortion should be no exception.”
“As your Governor, I will do everything in my power to ensure that as a state we support and care for women facing these difficult decisions, and when chosen, abortions are safe and legal,” the statement said.
Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz had said Stefanowski was offering women no assurance he would veto any effort to restrict access to abortion in Connecticut, a state whose legislature passed a law 32 years ago codifying the tenets of Roe.
“It’s one thing to support the current law. It’s another thing to step forward and say if a bill should come to your desk, that you will veto it, and you will fight any attempts to weaken our law, because those happen every year,” Bysiewicz had said. “So you’re not pro-choice, in my estimation, until you step up and say that.”
Sen. Heather Somers of Groton, one of four Republicans to vote for the bill in the Senate, said after the ceremonial bill signing that whether Stefanowski would have signed it would be an issue.
“I think that’s a fair question. His running mate supported it. Laura Devlin has always been somebody who is pro-choice, as far as I understand from her history,” Somers said. “This is definitely going to be a campaign issue.”
Somers, who spoke at length in favor of the bill during the Senate debate, said she was unsure if Stefanowski had read it. Devlin said last week she and Stefanowski had not discussed it.
Somers attended the bill-signing ceremony with her daughter, Hayley, and 2-yearold granddaughter, Stevie.
The campaign entered a new phase this week with Lamont and Stefanowski each formally becoming their party’s endorsed candidate, setting the stage for a rematch of the 2018 race Lamont won by 3 percentage points.