Connecticut leaders vowed to keep abortion legal and accessible on Wednesday, the fourth anniversary of the landmark ruling overturning Roe v Wade.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling in 2022, state lawmakers have moved swiftly to expand abortion access.

But opponents have notched some wins as well, and groups like Planned Parenthood face deep cuts to federal funding.

While dozens of states are restricting or even criminalizing abortion, Gov. Ned Lamont promised to make Connecticut a firewall.

“We're standing up. We’re making sure those rights are protected here in our state,” Lamont said outside the New Haven Pride Center on Wednesday afternoon. “Leave our doctors alone. Leave our moms alone. Leave our kids alone. Just leave us alone.”

Connecticut has passed nearly a dozen laws in response to Dobbs – including the nation’s first “shield law” protecting patients and providers from out-of-state legal actions. In 2025, it was expanded to shield physicians from losing their license over reproductive procedures.

Lawmakers also beefed up privacy protections over patients’ medical records.

Connecticut has expanded access as well. Physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses can now perform aspiration abortions; colleges and universities offer more reproductive services; contraceptives are available in vending machines and teens are guaranteed access to birth control – including the Plan B “morning after pill."

The state launched a website and a hotline showing patients where to obtain an abortion, plus how to get insurance coverage, transportation and financial help. And a new “Safe Harbor Fund” helps out-of-state patients travel to Connecticut.

“This will be funding for travel expenses, for lodging, maybe for childcare,” said state treasurer Erick Russell.

The Safe Harbor Fund is completely funded by private donations. An earlier proposal to use $2 million in taxpayer money was defeated in 2023.

“We call [it] ‘abortion tourism,’ which is sadly going on in the state of Connecticut,” said Christopher Healy, head of the Connecticut Catholic Conference.

Abortion opponents have notched some wins of their own.

An effort to shield doctors who prescribe abortion pills through the mail failed this year.

“Anti-abortion politicians and activists are relentless in their continued attack on Mifepristone, the pill that has been safely used by over 7.5 million people for medication abortion,” said Gretchen Raffa, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England’s chief policy officer.

Louisiana charged doctors in New York and California with violating the state’s near-total abortion ban by mailing Mifepristone to patients there.

Both states refused to extradite the physicians to face criminal charges.

“It is a crime what they are doing,” Louisiana’s Republican attorney general, Liz Murrill, said in May 2025. “But because of states like New York who have set up – whose governor basically has put herself in the breach and will refuse to extradite this doctor.”

In another victory, the Connecticut Catholic Conference defeated a proposal requiring all emergency rooms to offer reproductive care, including religious hospitals.

“That was a huge issue for the Catholic church and for literally, you know, anyone of conscience who works in the health care field,” Healy said.

So far, opponents have also successfully fought an amendment to the state constitution to lock in reproductive rights. Voters in New York and nine other states added abortion access to their state constitutions, while Virginia and Nevada voters will consider amendments this fall.

The next battle is likely to be a parental notification law, which could become an issue in the race for governor.

“Any sane person, no matter what your feeling is about abortion, supports parental notification,” Healy said.

Despite protections in Connecticut, abortion providers face huge headwinds in Washington.

Congress cut tens of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood, including a one-year ban on Medicaid dollars.

Since January 2025, 57 Planned Parenthood clinics across 20 states have closed or consolidated with other sites, according to a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

"It is not clear how many of these closures are due to the losses in Medicaid and Title X funding or mergers with other clinics, but these closures reflect a reduction in access points for reproductive health care," the study found.

In response, Lamont approved $10.4 million in emergency funds, plus another $3 million in federal pandemic funds, for the organization.

“Connecticut continues to step up,” said Liz Gustafson, president of Reproductive Equity Now. “Connecticut continues to be a firewall.”