By Rep. Amanda Toll, D-Keene
The United States Senate’s vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act was the latest effort by Democrats to stand up for all Granite Staters’ reproductive rights. Roe v. Wade hangs in the balance in the Supreme Court while Republican legislators in New Hampshire and across the country continue to push their decades-long agenda of rolling back reproductive rights and ending access to abortion. Even though the Women’s Health Protection Act did not get enough votes in the Senate to become law, I am so thankful that Senator Hassan supported and advocated for this legislation.
While Senator Hassan is in Washington working to ensure that Granite Staters have the freedom to make their own health care decisions, her Republican opponents in New Hampshire have extreme, anti-choice records and are running to help Mitch McConnell roll back reproductive rights.
Last summer, State Senate President Chuck Morse shepherded into law the first abortion ban in modern New Hampshire history. The abortion ban that Morse pushed to become law is extreme by Morse’s design. It includes no exceptions for rape or incest — two exceptions Morse has vocally opposed before. It also makes no exceptions for fatal fetal anomalies and includes felony penalties for doctors for simply doing their jobs. Chuck Morse also opposes funding Planned Parenthood and even voted to do so – putting reproductive health care out of reach for Granite Staters. Chuck Morse actually tweeted his opposition to the Women’s Health Protection Act, but Morse really didn’t need to do this – his anti-choice record speaks for itself and leaves no doubt that he would have voted with Mitch McConnell and Republicans in Washington to oppose the legislation.
Another Republican running for US Senate with an appalling anti-choice record is Kevin Smith, who like Morse, tweeted about his opposition to the Women’s Health Protection Act. Many in New Hampshire remember Smith for being one of the leading opponents of reproductive freedom in the Granite State. Smith lobbied for the anti-choice, far-right group Cornerstone Action and called for defunding Planned Parenthood. Smith also served as a state representative, where he authored his own abortion ban and argued that doctors should be put in prison for providing medically safe abortions.
Last but not least, Don Bolduc joins Chuck Morse and Kevin Smith in the NH GOP Senate primary and has his own lengthy anti-choice record. Bolduc opposes abortion at any stage of pregnancy. He also openly calls for defunding Planned Parenthood, which would threaten access to birth control, STI testing and treatment, cancer screenings, and other important health care services for thousands of Granite Staters.
Mitch McConnell may have reliable anti-choice allies in all three of these Republican Senate candidates, but thankfully Granite Staters have a fierce advocate for protecting reproductive rights in Senator Maggie Hassan. In the Senate, Senator Hassan secured Title X funding for family planning clinics like Planned Parenthood, which provide important health care services for thousands of Granite Staters. She also worked to end the domestic Gag Rule put in place by the Trump administration, which prevents people from having access to health care services at family planning centers. And after the Executive Council defunded Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics in New Hampshire last year, she pushed the Department of Health and Human Services to provide supplemental grants to those health care clinics so Granite Staters could continue to receive affordable health care.
The difference between Senator Hassan’s record of standing up for the reproductive rights that Granite Staters value and her opponents’ records of trying to interfere in Granite Staters’ private reproductive medical decisions could not be more clear. Granite Staters know that Senator Hassan will always stand up for access to reproductive health care. When it comes to her Republican opponents, they would be nothing more than rubber stamps for Mitch McConnell’s anti-choice agenda.
