HARTFORD, Conn. — Businesses in states implementing laws restricting women’s rights should consider relocating to the Nutmeg State, Gov. Ned Lamont said Friday.
The governor posted a new video on his social media platforms urging business owners to consider moving to Connecticut because it is a “family-friendly state that respects women.”
“We don’t have oil and natural gas, but we have one of the most productive, best trained, most innovative workforces in the world,” Lamont said. “And that starts with the fact that we have more women participating in our workforce than just about anywhere else.”
The governor’s video comes after Texas passed a new law that prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity – usually around six weeks, before some women know they’re pregnant.
Courts have blocked other states from imposing similar restrictions, but Texas’ law differs significantly because it leaves enforcement to private citizens through civil lawsuits instead of criminal prosecutors.
The Justice Department sued Texas on Thursday, arguing the law was enacted “in open defiance of the Constitution. The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare the law invalid “to enjoin its enforcement, and to protect the rights that Texas has violated.”
On Friday, Lamont said Connecticut had codified the protection of a woman’s right to choose “because that’s about respect.”
“I want you to know that we also have one of the largest expansions of daycare and childcare in the country, making it easier for women to get back to work,” he said, adding: “Connecticut is a great place to be.”
This is not the first time Lamont has made the call for business owners to consider relocating to Connecticut.
In 2019, he posted an open letter on Twitter calling on women-owned businesses in Alabama, Georgia and Missouri, encouraging them to move.
At the time, these states had passed abortion bans, which were in direct opposition to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling which legalized abortion. The laws in Alabama and Missouri were temporarily blocked by a federal court, while the George law was struck down in federal court.
Connecticut is among the 20 states currently backing a challenge of a similar law in South Carolina.
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