If you missed the memo, NH Bulletin is run by States Newsroom, a well-funded, national progressive project to advance approved narratives. It is a quasi-moderate Potemkin online village trying to shoehorn “right-thinking” Leftism into the collective consciousness.
They are also a place to look for low-hanging fruit. Here’s the headline: “What’s next for abortion laws in New Hampshire.”
New Hampshire Dems have lost their minds about New Hampshire’s six-month abortion “ban,” even though longtime Blue New York and Massachusetts have similar or stricter laws on the books. Canada’s least restrictive province stops at 24 weeks and several much sooner, which might be why they say they intend to move there but then don’t but should. The Great White North has no federal abortion law, just like America, which means they could try to expand it to birth, which is what they want here.
With that in mind, an article about abortion from a rag like the Bulletin makes sense. It does not, however, start well. The first thing mentioned that’s next on abortion in New Hampshire is a bill by Glen Cordelli.
Cordelli, a Tuftonboro Republican, has filed a bill that would create criminal and civil penalties for the “recruitment, harboring, or transporting” of a pregnant minor to obtain an abortion without parental permission – unless that child had been emancipated.
Who among us thinks random strangers should be transporting other people’s children across state lines for any reason without consent? Anyone? I would love to hear (can’t wait, actually) to listen to Democrats (or anyone else) defend the practice.
Next, Rep. John Sellers has a bill that would include instruction on what happens during an abortion as part of Sex Education.
“I’m trying to protect the kids and trying to get them more educated on not only the value of life, but also, you know, if you’re going to do an abortion, this is what it is. And you know what? You don’t have to do an abortion if you have an unplanned pregnancy. You can have an adoption.”
Dems object to ultrasounds before abortions, so teaching the heads full of mush what happens isn’t going to fly with them, but why not? Because it might impress upon them what happens, and then they might do something drastic like not have sex or (Gasp!) carry a child to term. Learning about adoption only makes the latter more unacceptable. How dare you let some loving parent who wants a child adopt one.
Their last gasp features Rep Katy Peternel, an outstanding Rep and supporter of these pages. She has an LSR titled “Relative to Restrictions on elective abortion.” She’s not telling Nh Bulletin what that means in long form, but it sounds like something Dems insisted would happen if Republicans were elected.
In a text exchange, Peternel said that her bill “will allow late-term abortion when the pregnancy poses any risk to the mother’s health or there is a fatal fetal abnormality.” But she did not answer questions about whether the bill would change the current 24-week restrictions.
I didn’t ask her to confide in me the objectives, but if I had to guess, there are plenty of places to do better. NH Has no reporting requirements, so no one knows how many abortions happen or if there were complications. It is one of the few, if not the only, medical procedures with this exemption. In other words, I don’t think there is any effort to move away from six months of this session, but proposing health and safety triggers is more likely.
I’m sure it is enough to get the hair up on the backs of most NH Dems. The party position is abortion for any reason, all the time, up to birth. The caucus has not signaled any change there, and it does its best to keep its caucus in line. Big Abortion gives big bucks to the left, and anything that interferes with this is a problem, but they never say that out loud.
[ Kayla] Montgomery [Planned Parenthood, Public Affairs] said she is monitoring for “TRAP laws,” an acronym used by abortion rights supporters that stands for “targeted regulation of abortion providers.” That could include any laws that require abortion providers to change staffing or building layouts such as hallway widths. There are no House legislative service requests that indicate such laws. The deadline for House submissions of legislative service requests was Nov. 22, but senators have not set their deadlines and may continue to propose legislation this month.
The irony of this is that Dems do this to everyone but abortion providers at every opportunity. They have a few bills to push back that have no hope for this session, but you can’t fault them for that. It’s who they are, just like NH Bulletin. The key is knowing what you’re dealing with, especially when they claim to be non-partisan instead of admitting what they are trying to do.
