Connecticut Democrats are proposing an amendment to the state constitution that would prohibit discrimination based on factors including pregnancy, abortion, gender identity and related healthcare.
Supporters say it strengthens privacy rights, but opponents argue it could undermine women’s sports by allowing competition based on gender identity rather than sex, and could enable more late-term abortions.
“Supporters say this measure simply strengthens Connecticut’s right to privacy, but those opposed are concerned this proposal would open the door to issues in areas like abortion and women’s sports,” FOX61 reported.
Pro-life groups warn it opens the door to greater abortion access.
The measure is “an egregious abuse of women,” Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) co-founder Kim Jones stated.
“We don’t allow adults to compete against children. We don’t allow doped athletes to compete against clean athletes. We don’t allow men to compete against women,” Jones said.
“As soon as you say you have to be able to recognize someone’s gender identity at the same value of sex, what you are saying is that you’ve got a conflict and you’re going to recognize that a male, his beliefs, his sense of self, is allowed to supersede or be equated to the value of the rights of a woman based on her sex,” she added.
“Abortion is already legal in Connecticut. The only thing this (amendment) would do is make it even easier than it already is to have a late-term abortion. This is abortion right up to birth. Do we want that in Connecticut? No,” said Peter Wolfgang, executive director of the Family of Institute of Connecticut.
While Democrats say it simply protects existing privacy rights and does not create new ones related to abortion, critics argue it establishes a more expansive right to privacy that threatens to supersede women’s rights.
The amendment is about “the much broader question of right to privacy,” Democrat Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney stated. Lawmakers are “not creating any new rights at all.”
“It is a fundamental protection that people have relied upon in various contexts since 1965,” Looney said. “We already have a statute that protects abortion rights in the state because we put into statute back in 1990, the language of Roe v. Wade, and we still believe that reflects the will of the people of Connecticut, but we’re talking about a far more aggressive attack on privacy rights now than anything just related to Roe v. Wade or the abortion issue, per se.”
If approved by a three-quarters legislative majority, the amendment would be placed on the November ballot for voters to decide.
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