Lucy Gellman Photo
Blumenthal: There are unnamed allies.
Even as President-Elect Donald J. Trump makes several pro-life cabinet picks, the fight for basic reproductive rights and access to safe and legal abortion is far from over. In fact, it may have some unexpected allies.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal delivered that message to 40 staff members, clinicians, and reproductive health care advocates and educators Tuesday afternoon at Planned Parenthood of Southern New England‘s Whitney Avenue offices, the flagship building for a regional arm of Planned Parenthood that serves Connecticut and Rhode Island with 17 smaller satellite operations spread across the two states.
There to reaffirm his support for Planned Parenthood, Blumenthal suggested that advocates of reproductive choice — who will still have to fight for their rights and their jobs, he said — may have enough across-aisle support to stave off Trump’s promise to gut Roe V. Wade and the access to safe and legal abortion that has since accompanied it.
He declined to name which Republicans he expects to help the pro-choicecause.
“I am encouraged that we can stand together and that we can at least seek to make it bipartisan,” he said. “We have allies on the other side of the aisle. You know, this issue used to be totally bipartisan. As you know, there’s nothing really political about it. And unfortunately now, the extremists who were marching outside of the Supreme Court in the 1970s, who were blocking access to clinics in Bridgeport .… their ideology now unfortunately in the highest places in Congress and the administration, and some of those people now hold sway in Washington.”
“We have to make sure that we hold true to the ideals that you embody everyday, because the majority of American people agree with you,” he added.
There are considerable obstacles to Planned Parenthood’s safety and success over the next four years, he said. He cited the proposed Targeted Restriction of Abortion Providers (TRAP) legislation that could come to Connecticut, danger to Connecticut’s Title X ruling and the possible nomination and confirmation of a pro-life Supreme Court justice.
But, he maintained throughout, any ground gained or held in that fight would come from bipartisanship in the new U.S Senate, where Republicans dominate 52 – 48. In an atmosphere where he has already voiced his opposition of proposed Health Secretary Tom Price and remained critical of proposed Attorney General pick Jeff Sessions, he said that he remains cautiously optimistic that his colleagues from across the aisle — many who are wary of Trump, he said — will reach over to vote with Democrats and pro-choice advocates on decisions around reproductive rights funding.
“We can stop a Supreme Court nominee who has committed to reverse Roe v. Wade or restrict it. I can tell you that I will fight — and I believe we will have bipartisan support,” he said. “I am heartened and encouraged by the support that I have seen from colleagues … and I am encouraged that we can stand together and that we can at least seek to make it bipartisan.”
“We’re going to prevail. We need to talk to people around the state and around the country and make them realize what is at stake,” he said. “This effort to defund and discredit Planned Parenthood will continue, and we need to be prepared and ready for that kind of battle.”
Tabor.
And yet, his hope remains. “I think the opportunity [for us to cross the aisle] is good,” he added. “I think the opponents of women’s health care are really going to overreach. This is typically what happens in Washington with a new administration, where the fervor is so strong. Vice President-Elect Mike Pence is really a zealot on this issue, just signed one of the most restrictive laws in the country, and I think they’re going to overreach.
“There are reasonable people on the other side. I don’t want to name anybody because I don’t want to unfairly put them on record here, but I’ve talked to a number of my republican colleagues who have a lot of misgivings about what may happen. You know, there are people — women and men — who have seen what happens in the real world when women have to make these deeply personal decisions that should be protected. So I think there are a group of five to six Republicans who we can count on to come together.”
While Blumenthal’s message had audience members chattering as they headed back to their daily routined, PPSNE Vice President of Public Policy & Advocacy Susan Yolen and President Judy Tabar had more cautious, and even grim, predictions for the years ahead.
“I hope he’s right — the margins are just so close,” said Yolen, expressing concern that cuts in the Affordable Care Act and restrictions on abortion access would immediately put several of their 70,000 patients in southern New England at risk.
“There’s tremendous uncertainty,” said Tabar. “We can anticipate renewed attacks on Planned Parenthood health centers and abortion. We are taking comfort on having been here for 100 years, and we are ready to fight back.”
