By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD — New Hampshire should join the rest of New England and solidify a woman’s right to abortion services in statute or in the constitution, the Senate Judiciary Committee was told Tuesday.
Senate Bill 260 would prohibit the state from infringing an individual’s right to terminate their pregnancy prior to 24 weeks gestation, which is the state’s law, which does ban abortion beyond that time with several exceptions.
At the public hearing, supporters said the state needs to make it clear women have a right to abortion services prior to 24 weeks of pregnancy, that abortion is a critical component of reproductive health care and that the decision to have an abortion should be determined by the patient, her provider and her family without government interference.
“A person in the position of considering abortion care deserves compassion, not judgment. They deserve access, not barriers, and they deserve to have firm ground under them on which to make a personal healthcare decision,” said state Sen. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, the prime sponsor of SB 360. “By passing Senate Bill 360, we say in New Hampshire we trust people to make their own healthcare decisions without political interference.”
But opponents of the bill argued it would expand abortion rights in the state, would trump other state laws concerning abortion, and is morally wrong.
Former Rep. Kurt Wuelper, R-Strafford, and the chair of NH Right to Life, said the bill seeks to expand abortion rights.
“When you say the right to abortion is not infringed, you say abortion is a really good thing,” he said. “Abortion is a cancer on society, it corrupts everything it touches, a mother, a child, medicine.”
If someone kills a child of less than 20 weeks, it is homicide, Wuelper told the committee, but on the other hand say you can have an abortion up to 24 weeks and kill a child and you get nothing.
“How can we do that morally?” he asked.
The two male members of the committee, Chair Bill Gannon, R-Sandown, and Vice Chair Daryl Abbas, R-Salem, questioned supporters over what the bill would accomplish.
What would change if the bill passed, Gannon asked Altschiller, and she said the tangential difference is currently there is no affirmative right to abortion healthcare in New Hampshire.
If the bill is passed a patient and her provider could move forward with certainty and clarity, she said.
But the statute could be changed next session, Gannon said, and Altschiller said everything they do can be changed in two years, noting abortion rights are shifting at the federal level, and the abortion ban after 24 weeks lawmakers passed several years ago had to have portions clawed back.
“We have shifting sands,” she said, and “It’s time for New Hampshire to assert you have a right up to 24 weeks to have an abortion.”
Claire Teylouni, of Reproductive Equity Now, Inc., said New Hampshire is the only state in New England without an affirmative right to abortion protection.
“You are not immune from the treats to abortion care we have seen across the country,” she said, “and coming from the federal level.”
The current system causes chaos and harm to real people which is why they are asking lawmakers to affirm that abortion is healthcare and a critical component of reproductive healthcare, Teylouni said, noting half of all women nationally do not know what the abortion restrictions are in their states.
Liz Canada of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England told the committee after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade and took away the federal right to abortion, 19 states either banned abortion outright or implemented severe restrictions, adding New Hampshire is the only state in New England without an explicit right to abortion access.
She noted a recent survey found that 64 percent of their constituents want their lawmakers to take affirmative action to protect abortion rights.
But Abbas said if the law doesn’t change, what is the difference whether SB 360 passes or not.
Canada reminded the committee there have been other bills introduced this year to further restrict abortion rights although none have passed.
“It is frightening what is happening at the federal level and what other states have done,” Canada said. “They want to know that is not going to happen in New Hampshire.”
Attorney Michael Tierney opposed the bill noting the only other example of “infringing on individual rights” is in the second amendment protecting the right to bear arms.
He said the connotation is that infringe could trump other laws as it is an individual right
“The only thing that is clear and implicit about this bill if it passes,” Tierney said, “is it would encourage litigation and do nothing to protect the life and safety of mothers.”
But Courtney Reed, policy advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union — NH said SB 360 is a simple bill that affirms the right to an abortion prior to the 24th week of pregnancy, which is needed now more than ever before citing instances of emergency rooms refusing to treat women because of restrictions in those states and in Georgia where a woman died.
The overturning of Roe put abortion restrictions in the hands of states and “we cannot afford to see those kinds of things in New Hampshire,” Reed said. “The bottom line is the legislature is not more qualified than medical experts to decide reproductive care.”
The committee did not make an immediate recommendation on the bill.
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.