Senate to Hear Life-Affirming Legislation This Week
Last month, the full House voted unanimously to pass the right to try expansion that would give terminally ill patients greater access to treatments in development. The bill is now in the Senate.
By providing greater legal protections for patients and providers and incorporating common-sense enhancements, HB 701 promises real relief for terminally ill individuals desperately seeking access to promising treatment options. It will not only advance life-affirming healthcare in New Hampshire, it will make our state the best jurisdiction in the country for clinical trials and seriously ill patients who are urgently seeking additional treatment options.
Unfortunately, because of the very protections that will make these treatments more accessible, the organization representing plaintiff attorneys is diligently lobbying the Senate and encouraging them to oppose this vital legislation to keep their path to litigation open. Imagine the heartbreak for the terminally ill individuals and their families who are denied a potential lifeline because of the fear of being taken to court.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
⏰ HB 701 has been scheduled for a public hearing Wednesday, April 23, at 9:15am in the Senate HHS Committee, State House room 103.
✅ Register your support of HB 701 by signing in. Here are step-by-step instructions on how to sign in.
✍️ Submit written testimony. You can do this when you sign in. Simply hit “choose file” under step number four to upload a document with your testimony, or type your testimony into the provided box. We urge you to submit written testimony if you or a loved one had a life-threatening illness and struggled to obtain access to treatment.
📍 Attend the hearing and testify in person. The hearing will be in the State House, 107 N Main St, Concord, NH 03301, Room 103.
📩 If you experience trouble signing in or submitting testimony, you can email the members here.
Sign In
Oppose Pro-Abortion Deception Bill
Last month, the Senate passed SB 36, purportedly an “abortion statistics” bill. In reality, this bill has been drafted by lobbyists for the abortion industry. In its current form, SB 36 will let the abortion industry publish completely fabricated statistics in official DHHS reports.
New Hampshire is one of only 4 states in America that does not collect abortion statistics—and Cornerstone has been calling for an abortion statistics law since 2004.
The abortion industry is now attempting to exploit pro-lifers’ desire for statistics with this deceptive bill, written directly by paid lobbyists for Planned Parenthood and unanimously supported by Senate Democrats.
Under SB 36, abortionists will never face any consequences for willfully submitting manufactured statistics, which DHHS will then publish as true.
In theory, the bill’s penalty is a $100 fine to be imposed by DHHS. Yet our Patients’ Bill of Rights contained a similar, $2,000 DHHS fine. Dartmouth openly and flagrantly violated the law for six months—and DHHS never imposed any penalty.
Many examples show that, on polarizing cultural issues, New Hampshire’s left-wing state agencies will simply never act to impose an administrative penalty under any circumstances.
For this reason, an abortion statistics law requires—at minimum—a judicial remedy such as a misdemeanor penalty for willful violations. Without a working enforcement mechanism, this bill will produce pro-abortion propaganda—not factual statistics.
Because it was written by Planned Parenthood lobbyists, the bill is also full of other weasel clauses. For example, the bill does not require that abortionists report the actual gestational age of the child. Even Massachusetts still requires abortionists to report the child’s gestational age.
The function of this bill is to give the abortion lobby special government privileges, favoritism enjoyed by no other sector of the medical field, and to give them the ability to use DHHS as their propaganda tool to lie to the public. Any deceptive “statistics” provided under these conditions will do more harm than good by providing a false foundation for policy and public opinion. The cost of these manipulated statistics will be real lives. For this reason, Cornerstone strongly opposes SB 36.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
⏰ SB 36 has been scheduled for a public hearing Wednesday, April 23, at 9:30am in the House HHS Committee, Legislative Office Building, rooms 301-303.
❌ Register your opposition to SB 36 by signing in. Here are step-by-step instructions on how to sign in.
✍️ Submit written testimony. You can do this when you sign in. Simply hit “choose file” under step number four to upload a document with your testimony, or type your testimony into the provided box.
📧 If you experience trouble signing in or submitting testimony, you can email the members here.
Sign In
Protect Churches from
Unfair Taxes & Discrimination
Last month, the New Hampshire Senate passed a significantly degraded version of SB 291, a bill that, in its original form, would have expanded churches’ tax exemption to cover housing on church property that falls into one of these categories:
- Housing for church employees
- Housing provided as part of a residential program
- Rental units provided as part of the religious mission of the church
Additionally, SB 291, as originally written, would have protected churches that operate housing from discriminatory zoning enforcement.
Instead, the Senate failed to empower Granite State churches to alleviate the housing crisis, caving to the pressure of commercial landlords.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
📌 As a weakened SB 291 continues to the House, we are committed to amending and restoring the bill to its original intent and impact. We urge you to stay informed about the latest updates and developments. Your support and the support of your representatives will be crucial in giving churches what they need to help ease our affordable housing crisis in the Granite State.
📩 We encourage you to contact the House Ways and Means committee and ask them to support SB 291 when it comes before them.
Contact The Committee
Support the Safety and Privacy of
Women and Girls
SB 268 is a critical, straightforward bill that clarifies the state’s ability to differentiate between biological sexes in areas such as athletic competitions, prisons, restrooms, or places of intimate privacy.
This bill addresses the very real threats to the safety of our women and young girls that arise from the use of only self-declared gender identity to separate sensitive areas such as bathrooms, locker rooms, athletics, prisons, and other private areas.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
📝 Following the hearing last week, SB 268 will now have an executive session. During an executive session, the committee will vote to recommend the bill as OTP (ought to pass) or ITL (inexpedient to legislate).
📩 We urge you to contact the House Judiciary committee and ask them to vote OTP (ought to pass) on SB 268. Below are the emails for the members of the House Judiciary Committee:
Joe.Alexander@gc.nh.gov
Richard.Tripp@gc.nh.gov
Eric.Turer@gc.nh.gov
msmithpen@aol.com
Catherine.Rombeau@gc.nh.gov
Katy.Peternel@gc.nh.gov
Kristine.Perez@gc.nh.gov
mark.paige@gc.nh.gov
Jonathan.Morton@gc.nh.gov
Donald.McFarlane@gc.nh.gov
zoe.manos@gc.nh.gov
rjlynn4@gmail.com
Dennis.Mannion@gc.nh.gov
Katelyn.Kuttab@gc.nh.gov
Timothy.Horrigan@gc.nh.gov
Louise.Andrus@gc.nh.gov
Dan.Bergeron@gc.nh.gov
Paul.Berch@gc.nh.gov
