BEDFORD — The New Hampshire House of Representatives approved its first anti-abortion bill in nearly a decade, outlawing the procedure after the fetus reaches 24 weeks unless it is done to protect the mother’s health.
The 191-160 vote sends the measure (HB 625) over to the state Senate.
State Rep. Matthew Simon, R-Littleton, noted New Hampshire has among the most permissive abortion laws in the nation.
“At what point will we as legislators actually act on the core responsibility of the state to protect the life of viable babies? If not at 24 weeks, then when?” Simon said.
Some experts conclude a fetus at 24 weeks is viable enough to live on its own outside the womb, according to the bill’s supporters.
Rep. Marjorie Smith, D-Durham, said New Hampshire voters have long supported women’s control over their own bodies.
“We have no business being there. We should have the woman and her medical professional make the decisions that have to be made based on the circumstances of that particular pregnancy,” Smith said.
The bill’s passage out of the House sent abortion rights leaders scrambling. The New Hampshire Legislature, reliably libertarian on many social issues, has backed their cause, except for a two-year exception, since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision.
First gain since 2012
The only break in lawmakers’ pro-choice support followed the Tea Party election of 2010, after which arch-conservative Bill O’Brien became speaker of the House with a 3-1 GOP supermajority.
In 2012, the GOP-dominated Legislature passed and overcame a gubernatorial veto of a law banning a partial-birth abortion procedure in which a fetus is aborted just before its full delivery.
“It’s deeply disappointing that some members of the House voted to put their political agenda ahead of the health and well-being of Granite Staters,” said Kayla Montgomery, senior director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.
“Each pregnancy and each circumstance is unique. That’s why when people are making personal medical decisions, one-size-fits-all laws like this one don’t work.”
House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, put the GOP stamp on the vote.
“No matter what side of the debate you are on, prohibiting late-term abortions is something everyone should be on board with,” Osborne said in a statement.
“At 24 weeks, the unborn are considered viable, and this bill allows them to have the same rights as any other human.”
The bill faces an uncertain future given that three-term Republican Gov. Chris Sununu supports abortion rights.
The ban contains no rape or incest exception.
Opponents were upset to learn this bill didn’t go to the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee for its review, as previously planned.
The panel was supposed to look at the bill’s provision that would make health care providers performing abortions after 24 weeks subject to a Class B Felony, which carries up to a seven-year prison term and a fine of up to $100,000.
House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, said every House committee has the right to turn down a bill referral.
House Democrats walk in protest
The debate got emotional and bitter after House Republicans moved to take up a second anti-abortion measure (HB 233) known as the “born-alive” bill, which requires doctors to take all extraordinary measures to successfully deliver any child.
The bill had not been scheduled for action until Thursday.
House Democratic Leader Renny Cushing of Hampton prepared to leave in protest.
“The Democrats are going to go home,” Cushing said, promising they would return Thursday morning.
Packard ordered the doors be locked in the makeshift House chamber at the NH Sportsplex.
“At this point the doors are locked. Nobody is leaving the building right now. We are going to continue our business,” Packard said.
Nearly 100 House Democrats did get out. Fewer than 50 stayed behind to vainly fight the measure.
The House ultimately passed the second bill, 181-49.
Earlier Wednesday, the House without debate killed two other anti-abortion bills, another ban on public funding of abortion (HB 596) and another to support a resolution in favor of a “human life” amendment to the U.S. Constitution (HCR 4).
A fifth anti-abortion bill (HB 430) expected to come up Thursday would erase the state law preventing opponents from protesting on the sidewalk just outside abortion clinics.
