Competing proposals set stage for next round on abortion
CONCORD, N.H. — State lawmakers are fighting a proposal that would ban abortions in New Hampshire after 15 days gestation, and said last week they plan to introduce a constitutional amendment protecting the right to abortion in the Granite State.
The proposal would enshrine the right to abortion up to 24 weeks in the state constitution, allowing only abortions deemed “necessary” by a doctor after that. The state’s current law allows abortions up to 24 weeks, with exceptions to protect the mother’s life or if the fetus receives a fatal diagnosis.
The proposed constitutional change would take abortion decisions out of the hands of politicians and instead give control to doctors, according to Kayla Montgomery, vice president for public affairs of the state’s Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
“While abortion is currently safe and legal in New Hampshire, to date, New Hampshire lawmakers have refused to make abortion an explicit right,” Representative Amanda Elizabeth Toll, a Keene Democrat sponsoring the legislation, said in a written statement. “Right now that means that we have zero state or federal protections in place that safeguard the right to an abortion.”
Debate over state law governing abortion has intensified after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court last summer, putting the power of regulating abortions in the hands of state lawmakers.
A constitutional amendment requires a three-fifths vote from both the House and the Senate before it’s put to New Hampshire voters during the November 2024 election. Two-thirds of those voting on the measure must support it for it to pass.
Two Republican representatives joined the 11 Democrats sponsoring the legislation: Susan Vandecasteele of Salem and Brandon Phinney of Rochester.
Asked if he would support the effort, a spokesperson for Governor Chris Sununu referred the Globe to a statement he made last summer.
“I have made clear I support codifying Roe v. Wade into law, and stand ready to sign a bill once it reaches my desk,” he said.
Sununu describes himself as pro-choice, although abortion rights advocates have criticized that description since he signed a 24-week abortion ban into law in 2021.
But Sununu was quick to dismiss the bill sponsored by four House Republicans that emerged last week, prohibiting abortion other than for a medical emergency after 15 days of gestation, at which point the embryo is about the size of a poppy seed and most women do not yet know they are pregnant. It would amount to an outright ban on abortion, which is unlikely to pass in New Hampshire.
“I think it’s safe to say we are putting this one in the crazy pile,” Sununu said in a written statement. Other members of Republican House leadership dismissed the proposed ban, noting it would not gain the support required to become law.
Senator Carrie Gendreau, whose extremely conservative Christian views sparked controversy in Littleton after she spoke against LGBTQ+ artwork, is among the lawmakers supporting the 15-day ban.
“I don’t see this bill going anyplace,” Republican House Speaker Sherman Packard said on WFEA Radio last week.
“We’re happy with what we have, with the ban at 24 weeks,” he said.
One Republican representative who had initially signed on in support of the measure withdrew her support days after the proposal became public.
Kristine Perez, a Londonderry Republican, in a Facebook post. Perez said she was told the bill would be a 15-week ban and apologized for supporting the 15-day ban.
The bill did not garner the support of Cornerstone Action, an anti-abortion Christian advocacy group that criticized both the bill and its prime sponsor.
Reproductive health care providers and reproductive health advocates praised the new proposal to put protections for abortion access into New Hampshire’s constitution.
“At a time when access to abortion is increasingly under threat,” said the Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s Montgomery in a written statement, “this constitutional amendment is an important and a necessary step to safeguard reproductive rights in New Hampshire and to put the decision in the hands of patients and health care providers — not politicians.”