The measure cleared the state Senate late Friday night in a 25-9 vote, after passing the state House last week in an 87-60 bipartisan vote. Democrats control both chambers of the General Assembly. Three Democrats in the Senate and 14 in the House voted against the bill, while five Republicans in the Senate and seven in the House voted yes.
Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, has said that he will sign the bill. CNN has reached out to the governor’s office for comment now that the bill has passed. Once enacted, the bill would go into effect on July 1.
“It’s incredible that the Supreme Court is going to make a decision in three or four months that could fundamentally change a woman’s right to choose and that a majority of the states across the country already got bills passed or about to pass that virtually outlaw a woman’s right to choose, and we’re not going to let that happen in Connecticut,” Lamont said at a news conference last week alongside abortion rights advocates.
The measure would block state agencies from assisting in interstate investigations or prosecutions that would hold someone criminally or civilly liable for providing, seeking, receiving or asking about abortion services legal in Connecticut. It would bar court officers from issuing subpoenas related to legal abortion services in the state.
The bill would also limit the governor’s extradition authority, meaning the governor would not be able to extradite a person who performed an abortion in Connecticut that’s considered a crime in another state.
Democratic state Rep. Matt Blumenthal, a bill sponsor, said in a statement that the measure would “serve as a blueprint for states across the country seeking to protect the right to choose.”
Anti-abortion groups have objected to the bill, with the Family Institute of Connecticut saying it would turn the state into a “safe harbor for unsavory out-of-state abortionists.”
Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington state last month signed a bill into law that he said would protect out-of-state patients seeking abortion services and Washington abortion providers from “prosecution through vigilante justice” from states such as Texas.
Drexel University law professor David Cohen told CNN that while the Washington state law may be interpreted as protecting abortion providers, Connecticut would be the first state to “specifically get this far with specific protections for providers (and) helpers of interstate abortion travelers.”
“The Connecticut bill is just much more specific, and clear about protecting abortion providers and helpers and seekers in Connecticut from out-of-state lawsuits and criminal investigations,” Cohen said.
This story has been updated with additional details.