Just over nine years ago, I lay in a Paris hospital getting an ultrasound to assess the health of my preborn child. He was just shy of 12 weeks old, and it looked as if this young life might not survive complications with my pregnancy.
Back in the U.S., an apparent scandal was engulfing the abortion industry. A video had just been released showing the horrible dissection of a baby the same age as my preborn son against the backdrop of a Planned Parenthood senior director dispassionately discussing the sale of fetal body parts as if they were no different than any other commodity. As I saw the fully-formed child nestled in my womb kick his legs, my heart was breaking, not just for our family’s possible loss of a sibling but for all the children who would never know their mother’s touch.
Today, my son is a healthy 8-year-old, and I couldn’t imagine our lives without him. But, in New Hampshire and across the country, the fight to put any protections in place for the preborn of any age has only intensified.
Under New Hampshire law, instituted just two years ago, the preborn finally have some protections in what was previously an open abortion state up until birth, but these protections are far from a ban on abortion. Despite Democrats’ histrionic talk of an abortion ban, abortion is still fully legal in New Hampshire up to 24 weeks, or six months, a point at which children can typically survive on their own outside the womb. Even after the 24-week point, there are exceptions for fatal fetal anomalies or for the mother’s physical health or life.
Despite these modest protections, the Democrats continue to push reckless accusations that our law is extreme. The fact is, the majority of voters in New Hampshire, like voters across the country, favor some restrictions on the forcible termination of a preborn child’s life. In fact, more recent polls in the state show that number to be 60 to 70%.
Yet Democrats continue to stoke fear, spreading the claim that next New Hampshire will enact a six-week ban on abortion. As one of New Hampshire’s leading advocates for life, I can say unreservedly that there is no chance of this happening. A six-week ban would be opposed by a large number of Republicans in both the New Hampshire House and Senate. New Hampshire is a middle-of-the-road state: unless another quarter-million pro-life conservatives move here, it will not be politically possible to restrict abortion prior to 15 weeks. What is true is that our commonsense 24-week restrictions have been relentlessly targeted by Democrats, who desire unlimited elective abortion in the sixth, seventh, and eighth month of pregnancy.
Twenty-four weeks is not extreme, but advocating for unchecked abortion up to the point of birth is. Even the Supreme Court justices who ruled in the original Roe v. Wade case did not recognize abortion as an absolute right, but one that should balance the rights of the child with the mother’s interests, deferring to the states to make that determination.
I’ll make it clear. A modest 24-week limit on abortion is not what’s extreme. Advocating for the killing and dismemberment of a child up to the moment of birth is.
