Last year, Governor Chris Sununu signed the Fetal Life Protection Act into law as part of the budget trailer bill and the Democrats have been attacking him mercilessly for it ever since.
Since January, the FLPA has protected babies who are 24-weeks gestation or older from abortion except if needed to protect the mother’s life. Before that, abortion was legal in New Hampshire for any reason up until the moment of birth.
Governor Sununu has made it his mission this year to get a bill passed to gut the FLPA. HB1609 was sponsored by six Republicans and added so many exceptions to the FLPA as to render it completely ineffective. Sununu has been working at every step to shepherd this bill through the legislature.
On Thursday, Sununu finally got his way and HB1609 has been passed by both the NH House and Senate. Although HB1609 was amended in the House to no longer gut the FLPA, it does add an exception for babies with fatal fetal anomalies. When Sununu signs HB1609 into law, as he has promised to do, it will again be legal to kill these severely disabled babies up until the moment of birth.
Related: Action Alert: Six Republican Reps Conspire to Make Abortion Legal Until Birth in NH
After the vote, Republican Rep. Dan Wolf, representing New London and Newbury and prime sponsor of HB1609, celebrated with the Democrats the return of gruesome late-term abortions to New Hampshire.
It has been hundreds (!!) of hours of work but today, the Senate passed HB1609, to add a critical exception for fatal fetal diagnoses to #NH’s abortion ban. Thanks to the 19 Senators who voted for it, bill sponsor Rep. Wolf, & Granite Staters who shared their stories! #NHPolitics pic.twitter.com/W4khkIjAVK
— Wizzie 🇨🇦 (@eacanada) April 21, 2022