Tuesday, the NH House Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee held a public hearing on HB1609 which was sponsored by six Republicans for the purpose of gutting the Fetal Life Protection Act (FLPA).
FPLA restricts abortion after 24 weeks in New Hampshire. HB1609 would add a raft of exceptions that would make it toothless.
In June 2021, when Governor Chris Sununu signed HB2, the budget trailer bill into law, it included the FLPA, and Sununu has been taking significant political heat about it from the abortion lobby. Especially concerning the ultrasound requirement in the Act. This bill appears to be an attempt by Sununu to stop the relentless attacks.
Related: Action Alert: Six Republican Reps Conspire to Make Abortion Legal Until Birth in NH
At the hearing Tuesday, five men testified in support of the bill: Republican sponsors Rep. Dan Wolf and Rep. John Graham, Democrats Rep. Jerry Knirk, Rep. Timothy Horrigan, and Matthew Hood the vice president for government relations at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Planned Parenthood lobbyist Kayla Montgomery walked in to observe the hearing and walked out without testifying
Several others, many of them women, gave heartfelt testimony in opposition to the bill. A mother gave bittersweet testimony about having twice rejected abortion.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Chair Mark Pearson immediately called for an executive session for the committee members to discuss and vote on the bill. The chair presented an amendment to HB1609 from Rep. Beth Folsom for consideration by the members of the committee. The chair then handed out a letter from Sununu to the committee detailing Sununu’s support for the bill.
The Democrats on the committee were caught off guard by Rep. Pearson calling for an executive session and by the amendment. They protested that the process was too rushed but the chair refused to reconsider. They then requested an opportunity to leave the room and have a discussion.
When the Democrats returned and after a discussion about the amendment, the committee voted 11 Republicans to 10 Democrats, to adopt the amendment. It completely replaced the bill with a provision to clarify the FLPA’s ultrasound requirement and the committee voted 11-10 to pass the amended bill. HB1609 now strengthens the FLPA instead of gutting it, thwarting Sununu’s ambitions.