For decades, New Hampshire allowed children to be aborted for any reason and at any time—even weeks or days before birth. The exact death toll is shrouded in mystery — our state’s refusal to collect abortion statistics means that we cannot know how many viable unborn children have been killed in New Hampshire over those many years.
In June, New Hampshire finally passed the Fetal Life Protection Act, our state’s first ban on late-term abortion since Roe. The law prohibits abortion at 24 weeks: a modest compromise that won the support of many pro-choice Republicans. You can learn all about the new law here
Unfortunately, despite our state’s Republican-majority government, pro-abortion forces within the GOP have been working tirelessly to destroy the law and return to abortion up to birth. On September 28, at an executive session of the House Judiciary Committee, two Republican members of the Committee—Rep. Ned Gordon (Alexandria, Ashland, Bridgewater, Bristol, Grafton) and Rep. Joe Alexander (Goffstown)—advanced an underhanded plan to destroy the Fetal Life Protection Act.
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Taking up an obscure pro-life bill that had been retained from the previous legislative session, the Republican-led Committee rewrote the bill—HB 622—into what is effectively a complete repeal of New Hampshire’s late-term abortion ban by stripping out the law’s modest ultrasound provision, rendering it unenforceable and meaningless. By gutting our only protection for the late-term preborn, the rewritten bill would effectively return New Hampshire to unrestricted abortion up to birth. (Read more about why here.)
New Hampshire’s Republican platform states that:
“life is sacred from conception to natural death.”
Yet Gordon and Alexander have so far been allowed to remain in their positions by House Republican leadership.
Speaker Packard has already shown his willingness to make leadership changes. Earlier this week, after circulating a series of unfounded claims about the Covid-19 Vaccine, Rep. Ken Weyler stepped down from his position as Chair of the House Finance Committee after being told by Packard that if he did not, he would be removed. If a Republican who spreads misinformation is not fit for leadership then Republicans who would remove our protections for children in the last months of pregnancy are certainly not fit for leadership either.
In fact, allowing their actions to go unanswered would be a gross betrayal of the Republican platform and a fraud against the majority of Granite Staters who put their trust in a Republican majority to lead this state and keep their word.
We are not alone. Well over a hundred thousand Granite Staters are hardcore pro-lifers. If Republican leadership wants to continue to enjoy our considerable support, they need to take decisive action to remove malicious actors like Gordon and Alexander and stop the inhuman crimes they are trying to facilitate.
But leadership won’t do so without a resounding chorus of voices willing to safeguard our hard-won protections for these vulnerable late-term children. Urge Speaker Packard to honor the party platform and use his influence to immediately remove Reps. Gordon and Alexander from the House Judiciary Committee.
You can contact Speaker Packard at sherman.packard@leg.state.nh.us or call him at 603-271-3661.
(Cornerstone FAQ on late-term abortions here)
Ask the Senate Judiciary Committee to Vote in Favor of Civil Liberties!
During the COVID-19 state of emergency, Governor Sununu wielded some of the broadest emergency powers of any governor in the country. In legal decisions upholding Sununu’s orders, New Hampshire courts interpreted our state’s emergency powers laws to mean that “the Governor may suspend… constitutional rights during a state of emergency.”
Last session, Rep. Jim Kofalt sought to address this problem by introducing HB 440, the Civil Liberties Defense Act. This simple bill would clarify that the legislature never intended the state’s emergency powers laws to authorize the suspension of any civil liberties. “Civil liberties” refers to any of the liberties guaranteed under the federal or state constitutions.
Although the bill passed the House, it was retained by the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it is still awaiting a recommendation. The Committee will soon take up and review the bill again. Please contact the Senate Judiciary Committee and ask them to vote OTP on HB 440.
For more information on the Civil Liberties Defense Act, read our recent blog post.
