MANCHESTER, NH – Democratic lawmakers and candidates held a press conference highlighting the fight for reproductive freedom in Manchester. NH Senate Democratic leader Donna Soucy, 2nd Congressional District Nominee Maggie Goodlander, and State Senate candidate Dr. Bill Marsh were joined by reproductive rights advocate Ryan Hamilton.
Hamilton came to Granite State from Texas to share his family’s experience. His wife nearly died from complications from a miscarriage because of prohibitions on care that have been enacted in Texas.
Senator Soucy directly connected threats to reproductive freedom to the Trump and Republicans’ agenda in New Hampshire.
“Trump and his allies and their extreme Project 2025 agenda would ban abortion in all 50 states, including New Hampshire. It would restrict access to birth control, force states to monitor pregnancies, and even jeopardize access to IVF,” she said.
“Make no mistake about it. Reproductive rights are on the ballot this year. And Donald Trump’s position is clear,” said Soucy. “And Trump isn’t alone. I’ve seen firsthand extreme Republicans in our state stand with Trump in his efforts to take away fundamental freedoms. In just two years, New Hampshire Republicans have proposed multiple abortion bans, even a 15-day, let me repeat that, a 15-day ban with the majority of House Republicans voting for a near-total abortion ban.”
State Senate Candidate Dr. Bill Marsh referenced his experience as a long-time medical provider and the perspective of why men have a stake in this issue, saying, “Attacks on reproductive care impact all of us. As a practicing physician for 30 years, I know what it means to care for patients and to commit to doing everything in my power to look after their health and their well-being. But because of Donald Trump and so many doctors today can’t fulfill that commitment to their own patients, Donald Trump wants a country where women don’t have the fundamental freedom to make their own health care decisions.”
Maggie Goodlander began with this emphatic critique, “Generations of women and men have fought so that we would have control over our own bodies. And two years ago, the United States Supreme Court with a majority of justices appointed by former President Donald Trump, ripped away a fundamental freedom. A freedom that was so core to gender equality in this country, so core to who we are as Americans.”
Goodlander connected the fight in NH with the one she will face in Congress. Protection of reproductive freedom will require legislative solutions at the state and federal levels to overcome the impact of the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court.
She moved from the political to the personal by describing her recent stillbirth experience and how it impacted her perspective in her introduction of Ryan Hamilton.
“It’s medieval times for women’s health in America. This is not right, said Goodlander. Ryan, your story is so powerful because it reminds us that we are all in this. None of us is safe from the kind of fear that we would face in trying to access the healthcare that we need. The pain of the loss, and it’s a pain I felt myself, but I’m grateful to you for being here. I’m grateful to so many people I’ve met on the campaign trail who have shared their stories and who have helped turn pain into purpose.”
Ryan Hamilton described the harrowing tale of his wife that began when she was 13 weeks pregnant with their second child when she experienced bleeding and excruciating pain. They went to a local emergency clinic and learned their baby no longer had a heartbeat.
“And that should have been the end of it. That should have been the worst of it. What she needed was a procedure called a DNC,” he said. What she got was a prescription for a drug called misoprostol and they sent her back home, where we were supposed to complete the incomplete miscarriage at home on the toilet. That, in itself, is barbaric,” Hamilton said.
This began a four-day ordeal that is the direct result of the laws enacted in Texas that restrict medical care. In other states, without these restrictions, she would receive standard care for miscarriage. She instead was turned away over the next three days from two more hospitals until her husband found her unconscious from the loss of blood and nearly dead on their bathroom floor.
“In Texas, they have an exception for the life of the mother. What that means is you have to be close enough to dead for them to justify performing a DNC, and my wife was not close enough to dead yet. They sent us back home,” said Hamilton.
Hamilton decided to write and read “a letter to NH” to express his perspective on the issue and to put NH on notice about the stakes of this election
His very passionate plea included this information, “Since Trump overturned Roe v.Wade and the Texas abortion ban went into effect, Texas has had over 26,000 rape-related pregnancies and coinciding births in Texas – 26,000! That is what a Trump abortion ban looks like. 20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, and 60% of those will be incomplete miscarriages like my wife had, which will require abortion-related care. I’ve heard versions of the following statement countless times. Your wife had a miscarriage. It has nothing to do with abortion. They’re wrong,” he said.
Click the podcast link at the top to hear his story followed by “A Letter to NH” which begins at 4:30.