HARTFORD — The Public Health Committee Friday forwarded a controversial bill that regulates advertising for crisis pregnancy centers to the House, but it held legislation that would allow a terminally-ill patient end their lives with medication.
Crisis pregnancy centers provide pregnancy-related services and support, but do not offer abortions or emergency contraception and do not offer referrals for those services. Critics of the centers say women believe they are getting a full spectrum of reproductive care when that’s not the case.
The bill the committee approved Friday regulates the advertising these centers do and allows the attorney general to apply for a court order to bring a center into compliance with the law. The votes were being held open until 5 p.m., but a preliminary vote count shows the bill easily passed.
Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, said the legislation confers power upon the attorney general to essentially bring a private cause of action, which he believes to be unprecedented.
He said if the crisis pregnancy center is deceptive in their advertising then a person should already be allowed to file a complaint with the Department of Consumer Protection.
A similar bill was raised by the Public Health Committee last year for debate, but it never received a vote.
Candelora pointed out that during the public hearing on the bill they didn’t hear any specific allegations about pregnancy centers in Connecticut.
“I do feel as if this legislation is designed to discriminate against a particular portion of this industry,” Candelora said.
Rep. David Michel, D-Stamford, said some of the crisis pregnancy centers were quick to make some small changes to language on...
from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/CT-pregnancy-crisis-centers-face-stricter-13726957.php
No comments:
Post a Comment