FIC Blog

Trotman Reid To Share Stage With Planned Parenthood CEO Judy Tabar

The pro-abortion Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund (CTWEALF) announced in a Sept. 12th press release that it would be giving the Maria Miller Stewart award to Pamela Trotman Reid, the president of St. Joseph College. “Dr. Reid will be presented with her award at CWEALF’s One Women Makes a Difference event Tuesday, October 4, 5:00 – 9:00 at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Cromwell CT,” says the press release.

Other recipients of the award include Judy Tabar, President of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. (Listen to Peter Wolfgang debate Judy Tabar on WNPR’s Where We Live.)

The event’s financial sponsors include St. Joseph College, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, CT AFL-CIO, Goodwin College, and the law firms of Day Pitney LLP, McCarter & English LLP, and Livingston, Adler, Pulda, Meiklejohn & Kelly PC.

CTWEALF is a Hartford based non-profit with a long history of promoting abortion on demand in the name of “women’s rights”. CTWEALF was a plaintiff in early lawsuits, challenging bans on Medicaid funding of abortions. Their radical anti-family activism has continued to this day. CTWEALF played a leading role in advocating for passage of the Bathroom Bill by the Connecticut General Assembly. The CT Equality Coalition seemed little more than a front organization; Sally Tamarkin, the lead organizer for CT Equality was employed by CTWEALF, working out of CTWEALF’s offices in Hartford.

St. Joseph College is a Roman Catholic women’s college located in West Hartford, CT. Founded by the Sisters of Mercy, it is the only women’s college in the State of Connecticut.

According to the College’s mission statement, “The College is a community which promotes the growth of the whole person in a caring environment that encourages strong ethical values, personal integrity and a sense of responsibility to the needs of society.” Its website lists Catholic Identity as the first of seven core values, “Catholic Identity: Saint Joseph College is grounded in its heritage as a Catholic institution, expressing the Catholic tradition in an ecumenical and critical manner.”

This is not the first time that Trotman Reid’s words and actions in the public arena have drawn scrutiny. In an October 2008 interview with The Hartford Courant, she remarked on her admiration for Barack Obama and why she wanted him elected president, “And the next president is likely going to make appointments to the Supreme Court. That could affect the right of women to make choices about their own health. These are issues of incredible importance.”

Subsequent to the publication of that article, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Hartford, the Most Rev. Henry J. Mansell, wrote to Trotman Reid, asking her to clarify her comments. Archbishop Mansell reported the results of his correspondence in his November 2008 Catholic Transcript column, “On October 9th, the Hartford Courant reported on an interview with Dr. Pamela Trotman Reid, President of Saint Joseph College. The quotes attributed to Dr. Reid suggested some ambiguity in her support for the Church teaching on abortion. I wrote to Dr. Reid that day, asking for clarification. Correspondence and conversations followed. I am pleased to report that in her most recent letter to me Dr. Reid stated: ‘I am committed to upholding the Catholic teaching and values that are the foundation of a Mercy college.’”