Did you know that in Connecticut a fourteen year-old girl needs her parents permission to legally obtain a body piercing or take medication at school, but can obtain an abortion without them even being aware of it? 

In the final hours of the session two amendments were proposed to a Public Health Department bill. Democrat Jack Thompson, from Manchester, proposed an amendment, but was forced to withdraw it by some Democratic leaders and legislators. Republican T.R. Rowe, from Trumbull, offered a similar amendment, but was also pressured to withdraw it by Democratic leadership. The bill being amended included many revisions of public health laws, one of which related to the W.I.C. food program for low-income mothers and children. The Democrats threatened to not hold a vote on the bill, thus effecting W.I.C. recipients, if the amendments were not withdrawn. Although the amendments would have probably passed the House after a reasonable debate, pressure from Democratic leadership and a few rank and file members, using the threat to W.I.C funding, managed to stop consideration. It is ironic that a party that prides itself in assisting the poor was willing to deny them food because it felt a woman’s right to an abortion was threatened by expanding the current teen counseling law to include 16 and 17 year-olds.