UPDATED: Senate vote on abortion bill rescheduled to Feb. 22

Edited to reflect change in Senate schedule!

The New Hampshire Senate will vote Wednesday, February 22 on SB 181, a bill to declare abortion “vital to the liberty and equality of all individuals” and to put it beyond the reach of state regulation.

This is a rescheduled vote due to a forecast winter storm. The vote had originally been scheduled for February 23.

The Judiciary Committee voted 3-2 along party lines (Republicans in the majority) to recommend an “inexpedient to legislate” (ITL) vote on the bill. If the ITL recommendation is accepted by the Senate, the bill will die.

Action item: contact your state senator (see “Who’s My Senator?” from the General Court website) and request SUPPORT for the committee recommendation of “inexpedient to legislate” on SB 181.

While the sponsor of SB 181 has assured her colleagues that SB 181 would leave the Fetal Life Protection Act untouched, she failed to note that a separate bill is in the works to repeal FLPA. If SB 181 is passed and FLPA is repealed, New Hampshire will return to being a state where the elective direct intentional termination of human life is available on demand throughout pregnancy.

For coverage of the committee hearing on SB 181, see this blog’s January 31 post.

Seven other life-issue bills are pending in the House Judiciary Committee, which held hearings last week. A committee vote has not yet been scheduled.

Avalanche of hearings on House life-issue bills February 15 and 16

The New Hampshire House Judiciary Committee will spend two days on life-issue bills on Wednesday, February 15, and Thursday, February 16. The committee has reserved Representatives Hall in the State House both days for the expected crowd.

The four bills being heard Wednesday the 15th are all abortion-advocacy measures. The three on the following day have been introduced by pro-life legislators.

Of particular concern: CACR 2, a proposed constitutional amendment on “reproductive autonomy” that would graft abortion onto The New Hampshire constitution. Nearly as troublesome – and more likely to pass unless strong opposition comes out – is HB 88, which attempts to elevate abortion to a protected status under statute rather than under the constitution.

You can register your opinion on the House Online Testimony system right now, one entry for each bill, up until the days of the hearings. You do not have to provide written testimony, although you’re free to do so. Checking off “I support” or “I oppose” is a strong message in itself. Don’t put it off.

There’s time to make a plan to attend one or both of these hearings, too. Be aware that the starting time of a hearing might be pushed back if the preceding hearing is still going on.

February 15: the abortion bills

The quoted material next to each bill number is the description as printed in the House calendar. Hyperlinks in the subheadings will take you to the full text of each bill.

9 a.m.: CACR 2, “relating to reproductive freedom. Providing that all persons have the right to make their own reproductive decisions.”

CACR 2, being a proposed constitutional amendment, must be passed by a three-fifths vote of the full House and Senate before going to the voters. (CACRs don’t require approval from the governor.) It would insert this language into The New Hampshire constitution: “[Reproductive Liberty.] That an individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”

As with SB 181 and HB 88 (described below), this language completely ignores and thus attempts to dehumanize the preborn child. And how about “shall not be…infringed”? During the debate on this bill, legislators must be challenged on what that means for conscience rights for medical professionals, a parental right to be aware of medically-administered procedures on children, and a taxpayer’s right not to pay for the direct intentional termination of human life via abortion.

Bad statutes can be amended in the next legislative session. Constitutional amendments can’t.

10:30 a.m.: HB 271-FN, “repealing the fetal life protection act”

HB 271 has the virtue of being straightforward if nothing else. It would repeal the Fetal Life Protection Act (FLPA) altogether, turning back the clock to the time when abortion in New Hampshire was legal throughout pregnancy. The sponsor is Rep. Marjorie Smith (D-Durham), who finds a 24-week limit too restrictive to be borne.

1:00 p.m.: HB 88, “relative to reproductive rights”

HB 88 is the House version of SB 181, declaring that abortion is “vital to the equality and liberty of all individuals” and thus beyond the reach of the state to regulate. Like SB 181, HB 88 has an exception for FLPA and parental notification, but those statutes are open to repeal independently of HB 88. (HB 271, described above, would do precisely that to FLPA.)

Why two essentially-identical bills? If the House kills its own version, the same issue could be taken up later if the Senate version passes and comes to the House for consideration – and vice-versa. Abortion advocates are determined to get this policy passed one way or another. Unlike a constitutional amendment, a bill like HB 88 or SB 181 needs only a simple majority to pass, and it would not have to go to the voters for ratification.

2:30 p.m.: HB 224-FN, “repealing the criminal and civil penalties from the fetal life protection act”

This would gut the FLPA by ensuring that no one could be penalized for performing a post-24-week abortion, regardless of circumstances.

Be aware that the governor may very well sign this if it comes to his desk. He could still claim to be the governor who signed a law to limit abortion, while removing the only provision of the bill that forces accountability. I see no reason to tempt him into that kind of high-wire act. Let’s kill HB 224 now.

February 16: the life bills

9 a.m.: HB 346-FN, “relative to the right of any infant born alive to appropriate medical care and treatment”

A child who survives attempted abortion ought to be cared for, not abandoned to die or, in Gosnell-esque fashion, killed outright. Nothing in New Hampshire law protects those children. Born-alive bills have been killed here before. HB 346 is this year’s chance to rectify the situation.

If you’ve forgotten who Kermit Gosnell is, or if his name is new to you, please go back and read this and this.

Sponsors, supporters, and for that matter ALL legislators ought to be familiar with the Abortion Survivors Network (abortionsurvivors.org). I hope the sponsors are aware of the Network’s Education and Policy Center and I hope they have requested testimony from survivors.

10:30 a.m.: HB 562-FN, “requiring informed consent prior to receiving an abortion procedure”

Sponsors are calling this the Women’s Right to Know law, and as far as I know it differs from earlier New Hampshire informed consent bills in that it calls for chemical-abortion prescribers to inform patients of the availability of abortion-pill reversal. It also contains measures usually sought by informed consent legislation, including the opportunity (not the mandate) for a pregnant woman to request a sonogram; a list of public and private agencies available for assistance if the pregnancy is carried to term; fetal development information; and a 24-hour period between receiving the information and obtaining the abortion.

The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 2019 issued an annotated statement “strongly support[ing] laws which require women to be informed of the option of Abortion Pill Rescue [i.e. reversal] as part of a woman’s right to informed consent prior to abortion.”

1:00 p.m.: HB 591-FN, “prohibiting abortions after detection of fetal heartbeat”

HB 591, the heartbeat bill, would restrict abortion early in pregnancy – upon detection of a fetal heartbeat, approximately six weeks into pregnancy. There’s an exception for the life of the mother and to “prevent a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.” The penalty for a physician violating the law would be limited to disciplinary action.

SB 181: two hours of testimony; vote not yet scheduled

As abortion supporters carried signs outside the hearing room, the New Hampshire Senate Judiciary Committee took two hours of testimony today on SB 181, a bill to declare abortion “vital to the liberty and equality of all individuals” and to put it beyond the reach of state regulation. Chief sponsor Sen. Rebecca Perkins-Kwoka (D-Portsmouth) said that with the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Dobbs decision, “millions [of women] across the country…lose their rights.”

_{SB 181 supporters outside Senate hearing}

Kwoka assured her fellow senators that her bill would not change any law, leaving the Fetal Life Protection Act and its 24-week abortion limit in place. What she didn’t tell her fellow senators is that a separate bill is pending to repeal FLPA.

The full hearing may be viewed on YouTube, at the New Hampshire Senate Livestream. Look for Senate Judiciary’s hearing for 1/31/23, beginning near timestamp 1:47:00.

Robert Dunn testified late in the hearing (at timestamp 3:18:00 of the YouTube video). He’s Director of Public Policy for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester. “This is a Senate bill that wants to be a CACR [constitutional amendment],” he said, and he’s absolutely right. The sponsors of SB 181 are using the bill as a backstop in case they can’t get an amendment in place to enshrine abortion in the New Hampshire constitution. A statute is much easier to amend or repeal than a constitutional provision – but one way or another, abortion advocates are determined to turn back the clock to before Dobbs and FLPA.

Recognizing the humanity of both mother and child, Dunn continued with a warning that SB 181 could “resonate in other circumstances….Human dignity and solidarity are beset with challenges. To say that certain human beings are beyond the pale…is not something that in my view is going to help advance the cause of human dignity and human rights in other contexts.”

Bravo, sir.

“Access to abortion care” bill in Senate Committee January 31

[Edited to correct penalty provision of bill]

Do you think that abortion is “vital to the equality and liberty of all individuals”? The sponsors of SB 181-FN think so, and they’ll be in front of the New Hampshire Senate Judiciary Committee this week to make their case. The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, January 31, at 2 p.m. in room 100 on the first floor of the State House in Concord.

Let the committee hear from you

You can register your opinion on the bill online anytime before the hearing by using the state senate’s remote sign-in sheet. The Senate provides a sheet of directions for the remote sign-in process. For anyone planning to attend the hearing in person, the Senate guidelines for testifying at a public hearing are useful. If the hearing runs long, as is often the case on life-issue bills, signing in online and submitting written testimony are good ways to let the committee know where you stand, even of you can’t stay at the hearing until its end.

What the bill says

SB 181-FN, the so-called “Access to abortion care” bill, states “it shall be the public policy of New Hampshire that, because it is vital to the equality and liberty of all individuals, the state shall not restrict or interfere with an individual’s exercise of their private decision to terminate a pregnancy,” except as provided in the Fetal Life Protection Act and the law regarding parental notification for minors seeking abortion. An individual “injured” as a result of violation of “access to abortion care” would be able to get an injunction and to be awarded costs and legal fees.

The sponsors of SB 181 include all ten Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Rebecca Perkins Kwoka (D-Portsmouth). There are five House co-sponsors.

What the bill means

If access to abortion becomes New Hampshire policy “because it is vital to the equality and liberty of all individuals,” say goodbye to any effort to prevent public funds from being used directly for abortion. Conscience protections for health care personnel, already rejected repeatedly by legislators, would be further away than ever. So would informed consent legislation. If FLPA is repealed – as every sponsor of SB 181 would be pleased to see – then SB 181’s FLPA exception would be moot, and abortion in New Hampshire would once again be legal throughout pregnancy.

There will be a constitutional amendment introduced this session that would achieve everything SB 181 seeks. This bill would serve as a fallback if the constitutional amendment were to fail; SB 181 can be passed with a simple legislative majority while a constitutional change would require a three-fifths majority.

Bottom line: go online and sign in OPPOSED to SB 181-FN. If your district’s senator is on the Judiciary Committee, let that senator know where you stand. Committee members are Sharon Carson (chair; R-Londonderry), Bill Gannon (vice-chair; R-Sandown), Daryl Abbas (R-Salem), Shannon Chandley (D-Amherst), and Rebecca Whitley (D-Hopkinton).

Reality check: where’s the NH abortion “ban”?

A reader sent me a message tonight asking where to find the text of New Hampshire’s Fetal Life Protection Act (FLPA), which does not restrict abortion before 24 weeks of pregnancy. That’s the abortion “ban” that abortion-friendly candidates and PACs keep talking about as the November 8 election approaches.

The reader wanted to show a skeptical neighbor that the current law really does have exceptions for “fetal abnormalities incompatible with life.” When she did an online search for the relevant law – RSA 329:44 – she found no such exception in the first search result she found. I looked at the page kicked up by her search. Then I saw the note at the bottom of the page: “eff[ective] Jan. 1, 2022.”

The search result she saw at first didn’t show the amended version of the law. The amendment went into effect in May of 2022.

To find the updated language, I went to the General Court website and looked for the chaptered final version of HB 1609, the bill that amended FLPA.

Here’s the situation: abortion is hardly banned in New Hampshire.

There is no limitation on abortion before 24 weeks of pregnancy, except for a parental notification provision for minors seeking abortion, which can be sidestepped if the minor opts for a judicial bypass.

FLPA (RSA 329:44 as amended) limits abortions after the fetus reaches a gestational age of 24 weeks, with the following exceptions: “fetal abnormalities incompatible with life,” or a medical emergency, defined in the law as “a condition in which an abortion is necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant woman whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, or when continuation of the pregnancy will create a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function, as defined in RSA 329:43, V, of the pregnant woman.”

Whether or not you think exceptions are a good idea, they’re in there. This is all a matter of public record. Anyone attempting to obscure or deny the language of the law is not dealing in truth.

The only other abortion statute we have makes partial-birth abortion illegal. That law was passed over Gov. Lynch’s veto in 2012. Partial-birth abortion is a procedure in which the preborn child is partially delivered before being killed. The partial-birth-abortion law restricts one abortion method, not abortion in general.

I salute the reader who contacted me about this. She’s working to bring good sense and accurate information into a conversation with a neighbor. May her effort bear good fruit.