Op-ed written by Christopher Healy, Executive Director of the Connecticut Catholic Conference, published in the Hartford Courant on December 7, 2024:
It took little time for the radical abortionists to lose all perspective and credibility as witnessed by the recent effort by establishment media to proclaim a new dark age for women in Connecticut.
In the December 1 Hartford Courant article “Family Planning in Era of Trump,” the leaders of the taking of innocent life, Planned Parenthood, have complained that the election of Donald J. Trump will be catastrophic, and women are now scrambling to seek and horde birth control prescriptions in anticipation of a new dystopia.
Aside from being a free piece of fundraising propaganda for Planned Parenthood, a multi-million non-profit that pocketed $3 million from Connecticut taxpayers this year, the article failed to reflect the facts about abortion rights, birth control, and emergency contraceptives.
The result of the Dobbs decision in 2022 did change the abortion laws by returning the issue to state legislatures. Yet, nothing really changed in Connecticut, which had already codified the right to abortion. The laws and regulations are extremely permissive for those seeking this horrible practice with little oversight and with ample taxpayer funding.
Most Connecticut legislators are sadly proud to support these efforts which have resulted in a continuing increase in abortions in Connecticut, reaching 12,445 in 2023 based on numbers from the Department of Public Health.
Connecticut even expanded access to birth control by allowing pharmacists to prescribe it.
Emergency contraceptives are available over the counter. Yet, the Courant continues to parrot the whining of Planned Parenthood which is in the business of ending innocent life. They make money on it. Is this fact ever reported?
Planned Parenthood of Southern New England loves to take state and federal taxpayer money to promote themselves and perform their deadly services, while at the same time sitting on an endowment fund worth over $47 million according to IRS filings. An amount most nonprofits can only envy. They are a thriving business.
Scaring women with false and unsupported claims of losing access to birth control and emergency contraceptives is obviously great for business based on the article.
Yet Planned Parenthood of Southern New England continues to oppose reasonable controls and safeguards, including parental notification for minors seeking abortion.
They also supported recent illegal regulations that would have removed religious freedoms from health care workers while allowing an infant who survives a botched abortion to perish and suffer without medical aid. The Catholic Church opposes abortion because it takes away and diminishes the most precious gift God gives us, life.
We will continue to build support to educate people of why life is sacred and should be respected at any stage, from conception to natural death, how we can protect it, and how to show true, supportive compassion to expectant mothers.
These efforts will serve a greater purpose than the continued parade of voices of those who do not respect innocent life and wish to silence those who do. Voices that have turned the brutal abortion saga into a very profitable and politically beneficial endeavor.
By Christopher Healy, Executive Director, Connecticut Catholic Conference
