CONCORD, NH – Abortion rights activists gathered at the Legislative Office Building on Monday to garner support for a constitutional amendment protecting reproductive freedom.
Recently, a bill was introduced that would prohibit abortions of fetuses 15 days after conception. New Hampshire is also currently the only state in New England to not enshrine abortion rights within its laws as a right although abortions are legal up to 26 weeks into a pregnancy.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court case Planned Parenthood v. Casey overturned Roe v. Wade, states have the power to impose a total ban on abortion, with 22 states doing so since that time.
“At a time when access to abortion is increasingly under threat, this constitutional amendment is an important and a necessary step to safeguard reproductive rights in New Hampshire and to put the decision in the hands of patients and health care providers – not politicians,” said Kayla Montgomery, Vice President for Public Affairs of Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund. “Granite Staters have a long, bipartisan history of supporting privacy when it comes to reproductive rights, and this bipartisan proposal represents these Granite State values. We urge lawmakers to act now to pass this constitutional amendment.”
“Protecting the right to abortion in state law means trusting Granite Staters and their doctors, not politicians, to make their own personal health decisions,” Courtney Reed, Policy Advocate, ACLU of New Hampshire. “Until the right to have an abortion is protected, the state of reproductive healthcare in New Hampshire is up for grabs every time there is an election. It is long overdue that New Hampshire act decisively to protect abortion rights.”
In New Hampshire, constitutional amendments must be proposed by a legislator and then receive a 60 percent majority (240 state representatives and 15 state senators) in each chamber, be signed by the governor and then receive support from 66 percent of voters at the next election.