As a first-time candidate for elective office, I’m amazed at the number of surveys I’ve been sent by a whole bunch of different organizations wanting to know what I think about this or that and, depending upon how I think about this or that, they may or may not endorse me, send me money or “inform their members’ of my beliefs. Some are obvious crackpots, most seem legitimate. I’ve answered those from organizations I believe to be serious and simply filed the ones I don’t. But yesterday, I got one that, as a friend of mine would say, made me “throw up a little in my mouth”. Allow me to share some just a couple of the questions (and my thoughts) with you:
3) Do you support the right of a minor woman to obtain abortion services without her parents’ consent, notification, or a court or agency order?
At last glance, NH law states that young people under the age of 18 cannot get married without their parents’ permission nor can they legally consent to having sex. If I…
read the question correctly, the survey purveyors seem to advocate for allowing girls (the technical term for minor women), prohibited by NH law from legally having sex or signing contracts, to be able have a major medical procedure performed on them without their parents’ consent. Is it possible for the hospital/clinic/physicians’ consent-to-treatment contract to legally be signed by a “minor woman”
[21:44 Age of Majority; Adults. – Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the words “adult”, “majority”, “age of majority”, “full age or lawful age”, and all other terms of referring to those persons who are to be considered adults, shall mean those persons who have attained the age of 18 years.
Source. 1973, 72:72, eff. June 3, 1973.
457:5 Of Consent. – The age of consent shall be in the male and in the female, 18 years. Any marriage contracted by a person below the age of consent, except as hereinafter provided, may in the discretion of the superior court be annulled at the suit of the party who at the time of contracting such marriage was below the age of consent, or at the suit of his or her parent or guardian, unless such party after arriving at such age shall have confirmed the marriage.
Source. 1907, 80:2. 1923, 108:1. PL 286:5. RL 338:5. RSA 457:5. 1973, 72:35, eff. June 3, 1973.]
6) Do you support the enactment of laws to protect medical providers and patients from violence and intimidation?
I was unaware that medical providers and patients were not, like every NH citizen, protected from violence and intimidation; seems like an odd legal carve-out to me.
14) Do you oppose legislation allowing health care providers, including pharmacists, to refuse to participate in, perform, or provide referrals for health care services, including but not limited to contraception and abortion care?
Really? Do I support coercion? I must’ve have read that one wrong.
Or maybe, instead of sending the questions to me, perhaps the survey purveyors should ask the more than 50 million babies aborted since the Supreme Court handed down its decision re Roe v Wade what they think?
Wait, they can’t. They weren’t allowed to “choose.”