Updated through Feb. 25: votes scheduled on life-issue bills

New Hampshire senators have postponed a vote on a pro-abortion measure to March 9. In the other legislative chamber, the House Judiciary committee will vote on seven life-issue bills a day earlier, on Wednesday, March 8.

Senate

The full state Senate will vote on SB 181-FN on March 9 during a session beginning at 10 a.m. What you can do: contact your senator, if you haven’t done so already. Contact information for each senator is on the “Who’s My Senator?” page on the Senate website. All ten Democratic senators are co-sponsoring the bill to declare that abortion is “vital to the equality and liberty of all individuals.” Even if your senator is one of those ten, send a brief, clear, courteous message anyway: please support the Senate Judiciary Committee’s recommendation of “inexpedient to legislate” on SB 181-FN. Never let them say they didn’t hear from you.

Earlier coverage of the bill is in this blog’s January 31 post.

As with all Senate sessions, this one will be open to the public and will be live-streamed. There is no telling what time SB 181-FN will come up, with several dozen bills scheduled for votes the same day.

House Judiciary Committee

The House Judiciary Committee will vote on seven life-issue bills on March 8. What you can do: email the Judiciary Committee, especially if you didn’t sign in online or attend the original hearings. Emails to the committee can be sent to HouseJudiciaryCommittee@leg.state.nh.us. That address will reach all committee members.

I covered each of these bills in “Avalanche of hearings on House life-issue bills” earlier this month. In brief, four bills were introduced by abortion-friendly legislators, and three were introduced by legislators with pro-life records.

• CACR 2, a proposed amendment to the state constitution “relative to reproductive freedom,” a euphemism to enshrine abortion in the New Hampshire constitution.
• HB 88, the House version of SB 181, declaring abortion “vital to the equality and liberty of all individuals.”
• HB 224-FN, repealing the penalties prescribed in the Fetal Life Protection Act.
• HB 271-FN, repealing the Fetal Life Protection Act altogether.
• HB 346-FN, relative to the right of any infant born alive – including children who survive attempted abortion – to appropriate medical care and treatment.
• HB 562-FN, informed consent for abortion.
• HB 591-FN, prohibiting abortion after detection of a fetal heartbeat.

The committee session is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on March 8 and may run for several hours. The session is open to the public in the committee’s room in the Legislative Office Building, and the session will be live-streamed.