In wake of Roe decision, Democrats predict more anti-abortion efforts in NH

Jun. 28—Anti-abortion bills introduced in Concord this past session could be just a taste of what's to come next year now that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, state Democratic legislative leaders warned Monday.

"At the beginning of our legislative session this year, we saw multiple anti-choice bills from Republicans in the Statehouse," Sen. Donna Soucy, D-Manchester, said in a virtual news conference.

"Republicans in New Hampshire have made it clear that they will continue to try to roll back reproductive rights and end access to abortion even though New Hampshire is one of the most pro-choice states in the country."

But GOP leaders say there doesn't seem to be much political sentiment among Granite Staters to restrict abortion beyond the present ban on the procedure after 24 weeks of pregnancy.

After the Supreme Court decision was announced Friday morning, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who signed that ban last year, said access to abortion services "will continue to remain safe, accessible and legal" in New Hampshire.

For her part, Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington, a Concord Democrat whose district takes in much of the Monadnock Region, said she believes there remains a strong desire among some in the Statehouse to end access to abortion.

On March 16, the N.H. House passed, 175-165, Republican-backed House Bill 1080, which would allow health care professionals to refuse to participate in an abortion or provide a pharmacy prescription for a medication-induced abortion. The Senate decided, 14-10, to send the bill to a study to be done in the interim period between legislative sessions.

Also referred for an interim study was House Bill 1181, which would allow the biological father of a fetus to petition the court for an injunction prohibiting the biological mother from having an abortion.

Republicans backed other anti-abortion bills, but they were tabled, or failed to advance, such as House Bill 1477, to prohibit abortions after detection of a fetal heartbeat, which can be present as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

"Unfortunately, as we are all painfully aware, Republicans in the Statehouse have engaged in relentless attacks on our right to choose — in direct contrast with the will of the people," Warmington said at Monday's news conference.

"New Hampshire is historically one of the most pro-choice states in the union, yet we have a governor and Executive Council who put extreme partisan ideology ahead of the well-being of Granite Staters."

Late last year, Warmington supported giving state contracts to three organizations that provide reproductive and sexual health services, but the other four members of the Executive Council, all Republicans, voted against the agreements, and they never were approved.

On Monday afternoon, U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., who is running for re-election, said on a conference call that the way people can protect a woman's right to abortion is to elect more candidates who back that position.

She supports legislative efforts in Congress to codify the abortion-rights protections struck down by the high court when it overturned Roe v. Wade, 5-4. But she noted such legislation will be successful only if Democratic senators and representatives win at the polls.

The Senate's confirmation of three Supreme Court justices nominated by former Republican President Donald Trump set the stage for the high court's decision.

Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refused to give a hearing to President Barack Obama's nomination to the court, Merrick Garland, in March 2016, on the basis that the president to be elected eight months later should pick that nominee.

But McConnell deemed it proper to proceed with considering Trump's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court two months before the November 2020 general election.

This so infuriated some Democrats that legislation has been proposed to add seats to the Supreme Court, which Hassan does not support.

She said she has heard from residents across New Hampshire who are frustrated over the high court's decision.

"The notion that a radical group on the Supreme Court has taken away rights from half the population is devastating to people," she said.

Rick Green can be reached at rgreen@keenesentinel.com or 603-355-8567.