CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH PROPOSES CHANGING ABORTION REGULATIONS

CATHOLIC CONFERENCE IN STRONG OPPOSITION

In July, the state Department of Public Health (DPH), without proper public notice, proposed revisions to the existing abortion regulations that would: 1) eliminate the existing religious protections for providers who do not wish to participate in abortions, 2) eliminate the existing safeguard requirements for a newborn showing signs of life after an abortion, 3) eliminate the existing prohibition of abortions during the third trimester of pregnancy with specific exemptions. None of these topics were mentioned in any notification given to the public or the members of the Legislative Regulations and Review Committee. This committee gives final approval to state regulations.

 The Conference, working closely with the Family Institute of Connecticut, has presented significant procedural errors in the process followed by the DPH. State law governing how regulatory changes are to be made were not adhered to by the DPH. Inexplicably, DPH did not adhere to state law governing how changes are to be made to published regulations.

  The complete lack of transparency in the process, along with the administrative overreach by the DPH, should not be tolerated by the committee.  A vote of “disapproval” would require DPH to reinitiate the proposal process and reopen the proposed regulations for public comment. If the committee wishes to continue its consideration of these revised regulations, without a vote of disapproval, we are asking the members to consider a public hearing, as allowed by law, since the notice issued prior to the required comment period and during the review process was in error and misleading in content.

   Watch for further updates on this issue..