On Thursday, March 23, the New Hampshire House voted to pass HB 224, a bill to return New Hampshire to unrestricted abortion until a child’s head crowns. Although the House is virtually tied between Republicans and Democrats, the bill passed 205-178, with a group of 16 Republican representatives joining the Democrats.
This is a historic moment, not just for New Hampshire, but for America. Although there have been other narrowly-divided state legislatures in the US, this is the first time that any Republican-led legislative body has voted to authorize unlimited abortion until birth in a final vote. These legislators are also the largest group of Republican officials anywhere in the US to vote for unlimited abortion.
Under current New Hampshire law, the only abortions that are prohibited are those which knowingly kill a viable child six months or older. Let’s be clear about what HB 224 will do: its sole purpose is to allow the execution of children who are so well-developed that they could be delivered and would live.
Almost everything about the abortion industry in New Hampshire is shrouded in secrecy, making it impossible to know what will happen within the walls of New Hampshire abortion clinics if this bill is signed into law. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a good idea.
In Washington, D.C., where abortion clinics do not bother to hide their practices from the public, 5-star, upscale abortion clinics like the DuPont Clinic boast openly that they perform abortions of healthy children after 26 weeks. Last year, when the corpses of five full-term children were discovered in D.C., police announced there would be no criminal investigation because there had been no crime.
As our Executive Director, Shannon McGinley, has observed, “The House’s vote for HB 224 today was a bloodthirsty act. Make no mistake: voting to allow the execution of viable, late-term children is on the same moral plane as a wartime atrocity.”
The sixteen Republicans who voted to bring this kind of deep sickness to New Hampshire are:
- Lex Berezhny of Grafton 11
- David Bickford of Strafford 3
- Mike Bordes of Belknap 5
- Carroll Brown of Grafton 10
- Karel Crawford of Carroll 3
- Tanya Donnelly of Rockingham 25
- Oliver Ford of Rockingham 3
- John Lewicke of Hillsborough 36
- David Lundgren of Rockingham 16
- James Mason of Merrimack 3
- David Nagel of Belknap 6
- Mark Proulx of Hillsborough 15
- Dick Thackston of Chesire 12
- Susan Vandecasteele of Rockingham 25
- Dan Wolf of Merrimack 7
- Josh Yokela of Rockingham 32
Who are these sixteen legislators? Many have connections to Governor Sununu, who has promised to destroy New Hampshire’s six-month abortion ban. And a few, like Sununu ally Dan Wolf, are well-known as pro-abortion fanatics.
But what is most striking about this group of sixteen is the lengths that most went to obscure their pro-abortion extremism from voters and constituents. Judging from the campaign materials of these representatives, Republican voters in most of these districts did not know they were electing people who believed in elective abortion at nine months.
Of those with available campaign websites, none has a website listing their pro-abortion stance. In fact, Karel Crawford’s campaign promised voters they were electing a “conservative Republican.” Dick Thackston had a campaign website which—despite listing no actual policy positions—called himself a man of “conservative principles.”
Some representatives were less ambiguous. As recently as January of 2023, Josh Yokela simply lied to constituents who contacted him about New Hampshire’s law, telling them he would not support repealing or changing it.
Perhaps most noxious is David Nagel, whose campaign not only gave no hint that he supported bloody atrocities, but was largely focused on Jesus. Nagel said that he supported “traditional Republican values,” was pro-family, and was most importantly “a Christian” whose “core belief” was the Golden Rule of Matthew 7:12: “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.”
Nagel’s version of the Golden Rule apparently does not prohibit methodically murdering a fully-developed, healthy baby ready to be born by stabbing it in the head. Later in Matthew 7, of course, Jesus also says: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.” Nagel, in particular, would do well to see what Jesus had to say about serpents, vipers, and millstones.
Notably, eleven of these Republicans voted together as a strategic bloc on multiple bills. Although HB 271 was a functionally identical bill to HB 224, only five of the representatives also voted for 271: David Bickford, Mark Proulx, Susan Vandecasteele, Dan Wolf, and Josh Yokela.
It is not hard to figure out what the remaining 11 representatives have in mind. They believe that, when constituents contact them, they will be able to hide behind their vote on HB 271 despite passing another bill—HB 224—that did exactly the same thing.
In other words, these eleven believe New Hampshire voters, and especially pro-life voters, are too stupid to recognize what they are openly doing. We think they will soon learn that they were mistaken.
Find out if your representative is one of the sixteen and contact them. Then tell your state senator now to stand against HB 224. Most importantly, prayerfully prepare yourselves and your communities for a zealous fight to defend the least of these from the bloodthirsty work of these sixteen legislators.
Remember, both in preparing your own churches and praying for these legislators, the words of Jesus in the parable of the sheep and the goats.
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the goats: “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” He explains that the goats failed to help the weakest, most vulnerable among us, and concludes: “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”
