27-01-2025
Stiffer abortion ban bill stalls on launch pad
Jan. 27—The push to adopt a more restrictive ban on abortions failed Monday after the bill's author began a four-hour public hearing by moving to withdraw it.
A few hundred people turned out at the Legislative Office Building to speak for and against the proposal to ban abortions after 15 weeks, more than two months earlier than the 24-week ban the Legislature and former Gov. Chris Sununu put in place in 2021.
Rep. Katy Peternel, R-Wolfeboro, said it became clear her bill (HB 476) needed more work.
"After careful review, it has become clear that there is a flaw in the bill that prevents us from moving forward in a logical, reasonable, or obvious way," Peternel said in a statement. "Without consensus among the pro-life organizations across New Hampshire, this bill does not have the broad support it needs to advance successfully out of committee."
Peternel's move comes under a new House rule that makes legislation go away entirely if the full House votes to accept her bid to withdraw the bill. That vote would likely take place on Feb. 6.
After the hearing, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Lynn, R-Windham, tabled the matter until Feb. 19. By then, the entire matter will be moot if the House ends consideration of the legislation in the meantime.
Rep. Marjorie Smith, D-Durham, the ranking Democrat on the panel, tried without success to get Lynn to allow the committee to make a recommendation on the bill.
"I cannot believe that with all the attention brought to us that the speaker and the governor do not want the bill to come before the full House, but I think we should do our job, which is to vote on the bill," Smith said.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte said she would veto any legislation that went beyond the existing 24-week limit, which has exceptions which permit later-term abortions to protect the health of the mother or if the fetus has a fatal anomaly.
The leadership team of House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, ran in 2024 on a "Contract with New Hampshire" platform, and one of the 10 planks was to protect the 24-week ban on abortion by opposing any changes.
Powerful testimony given
Despite Peternel's misgivings about her bill, many speakers urged the panel to pass it.
Michael Lewis said a ban after 15 weeks would still allow 95% of abortions to take place.
"Is there a three-person reality, the man, the woman and the child or is there a one-person reality with just the woman deciding to abort the child?" Lewis asked.
Matthew Bean, an ordained minister from Sanbornton, likened tolerance for abortion to those who defended slavery and Nazi genocide of Jews by arguing Blacks and Jews were not "fully human."
"One day these babies will win the fight for human rights; maybe not today based on what I am hearing, but one day they will," Bean said.
More than a dozen obstetrician/gynecologists and pediatricians urged the panel to reject the legislation, arguing that the diagnostic tests that would reveal the fetus has significant disabilities aren't done until at least 20 weeks into pregnancy.
"Abortion is a compassionate procedure for people who are facing awful, unforeseen circumstances," said Dr. Stephanie Harlow of Dartmouth-Hitchcock.
"Private reproductive health care belongs with the patient and not with the Legislature," said Jinelle Hall, executive director of Equality Health Center in Concord, the state's oldest abortion clinic.
More than 11,400 people signed up online in opposition to the measure while 962 endorsed it.
Abortion statistics
After the hearing, Lynn proposed an amendment that would have New Hampshire join the 46 states that require health care providers to report the incidence of abortion to state officials.
"It doesn't sound like this is a red-state/blue-state kind of thing," Lynn said. "I basically consider myself a pro-choice person but I do support a reporting bill. I think it's appropriate to have accurate information about how many abortions are performed."
Kayla Montgomery, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, said her group would support an abortion statistics law.
She opposed Lynn's version because a competing bill (SB 36) from state Sen. Kevin Avard, R-Nashua, would better protect patient privacy and health provider safety.
"Like all laws, the devil is in the details," Montgomery said.
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