HARTFORD, Conn. –A yearly evaluation of abortion services in Connecticut has shown a slight increase in this life ending procedure and that women are not coming in droves to Connecticut to end of the lives of innocent children.
In its just released report, The State of Abortion in Connecticut 2023, the Connecticut Catholic Conference, which is the public policy office of the Catholic Bishops in Connecticut, reveals the truth behind recent media headlines. Even though Planned Parenthood of Southern New England (PPSNE) was rolling in tens of millions of dollars in cash, it tried to increase its abortion revenue by asking taxpayers to subsidize out of state patients seeking abortions.
Fortunately, the effort to secure an additional $2 million in state funding to pay for the travel and hotel expenses of patients seeking abortions in Connecticut failed. However, state taxpayers continued to pay for 12,469 abortions with many doing so with moral objections.
In particular, the report shows that despite the COVID pandemic and a reduction in the number of abortions in Connecticut during that time, PPSNE is in strong financial shape. In PPSNE’s 2022 fiscal year federal tax filing, it had revenue of $62 million, received $8.6 million in federal and state aid, had an endowment fund of $23.6 million, investments of $20 million, an operating surplus of $23 million, and ended the fiscal year with a cash balance of $29 million.
These financial categories all increased significantly since 2018, which was the last year the Conference reviewed PPSNE’s tax returns.
In addition to the reported state aid above, abortion providers in Connecticut also received a significant amount of taxpayer funds for performing abortions on low-income women during the calendar years 2021 and 2022. Based on data provided by the Connecticut Department of Social Services, state taxpayers paid for 12,469 abortions through the HUSKY insurance program amounting to $9.1 million.
The state-funded HUSKY Insurance coverage of abortion was court ordered in 1986, yet it still raises a serious moral concern for those taxpayers who view abortion as the taking of a defenseless human life. The 1986 Superior Court case was never appealed by then Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
The report also raises questions about the actual number of women coming from states that are now restricting abortions. Abortion advocates were sounding an alarm that their clinics would be overwhelmed by women seeking abortion in Connecticut. Women coming to Connecticut for abortions is not a new phenomenon, but with the lack of available public data the impact of changing abortion laws in other states cannot be verified. From 2020 to 2021 there were only 16 women who were residents outside of CT, MA, NY, and RI that obtained abortions in Connecticut. A 50% increase would only amount to 8 women, which would not warrant $2 million to cover travel and expenses.
