New Hampshire Democrats are pissing and moaning about Republicans “blocking progress” in the Legislature. That’s because the Dems are lumping legislation into omnibus bills to sneak crap legislation through without hearings or debate.
Related: So kids, what did we learn from Thursday’s House Session (06/11/20)?
But that’s not all. They’ve not been idle while the “government” was recessed for COVID19. Here’s one example of what we can expect.
CORNERSTONE POSITION: Cornerstone OPPOSES the proposed committee amendment to HB 685. The original language of HB 685 is about insurance reimbursement for ambulance services, but the Senate Commerce Committee has recommended that the bill’s language be replaced entirely with an abortion insurance mandate.
WHY: Two reasons.
1) No insurer should be required to provide coverage for abortion, and no employer who provides health insurance as an employee benefit should be forced to be complicit in providing abortions. This is a matter of religious liberty and conscience rights. Furthermore, the kind of language replacement proposed by the committee is known as a non-germane amendment, bearing no relation to the bill’s original intent.
2) A similar bill, SB 486-FN, already passed the Senate but is unlikely to be acted on in the House, since the House has not voted to extend its deadline for dealing with legislation. If HB 685 as amended passes the Senate, no House hearing would take place, since there was already a hearing on the original version of the bill. That would short-circuit the normal hearing process providing adequate notice and transparency to the public.
Note that some abortion advocates in the Senate have asserted that most health insurance policies already cover abortion. That is regrettable, but it’s no reason to mandate that still more policies cover it. A mandate to cover abortion is fundamentally different from an option to cover abortion.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Before Tuesday, June 16, ask your state senator to OPPOSE the committee amendment to HB 685. If the amendment is adopted, vote “inexpedient to legislate” on HB 685.
The Democrats will try to ram through whatever they can. And while Republicans will try to prevent subverting the process, they lack a majority in either chamber, and anything they do short of bending the knew will be sold as obstruction.
Yes, they will be obstructing the Democrats’ efforts to subvert the legitimate process, but that’s not how it will play in the media.
Please visit Cornerstone for more information about how you can help with this and a wide range of issues.
