In this CT legislative session Secular CT and HFFC have been closely following and advocating for three bills that interest humanists. Two bills passed, and a third made greater progress than in any previous session.
In late May 2021, Governor Lamont signed a bill prohibiting deceptive adversing intended to mislead the public on reproductive healthcare services. We would agree with his press release that it is "abhorrent" to mislead people "during a vulnerable time of their life."
In April 2021, the Governor signed a bill removing religious exemptions for student vaccinations. Despite protests from hundreds of anti-vaxxers, the bill passed overwhelming in both the House and Senate. Science prevailed! Unfortunately, in order to pass, a compromise was needed, "grandfathering" un-vaxxed kids currently in K-12. This means others remain vulnerable to the unvaxxed kids for up to 12 more years. But at least the bill finally got passed.
We advocated strongly for the Medical Aid-in-Dying bill for terminally-ill patients. The bill successfully got out of the Public Health Committee for the first time in 14 attempts since 1994. However, it died without a vote when it was referred to the Judiciary Committee, whose concerns will need to be addressed in a future legislation session.
