New Hampshire Senate Rejects Exceptions to New Late-Term Abortion Ban

State   |   Dave Andrusko   |   Feb 4, 2022   |   8:01PM   |   Concord, New Hampshire

Limitations on abortion late in pregnancy in New Hampshire took effect January 1. Abortions will no longer be permitted after the baby has reached 24 weeks with an exception if the mother’s life or her health is in danger.

“The Fetal Life Protection Act” was included in the budget signed into law by the governor. But that was not the end of the debate by any means, as US News & World Report predicted:

The abortion ban will continue to be debated at the State House when the next session begins in January, but some lawmakers are already working on a repeal of the ultrasound mandate.

Democrats have tried every which way to eliminate the requirement that an ultrasound be performed and/or additional exceptions be included. Reporting for the Associated Press, Holly Ramer wrote

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The Senate voted 14-10 along party lines Thursday to replace a bill that would have repealed the ban with a measure that would require ultrasounds only when a fetus is likely to be at least 24 weeks gestation. It also rejected attempts to remove the criminal penalties or to add exceptions for cases involving rape, incest or fatal fetal anomalies.

According to Ramer

Sen. Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry, said she found the latter exception particularly offensive as the mother of an adult daughter who was born with significant disabilities. Tests that indicate that a fetus is unlikely to survive can be wrong, she said.

“Never in my imagination would I ever believe that I had the right to kill her because she was disabled,” she said. “This is something that is entirely foreign to me. … Where does this idea come from — that you have the right to terminate a pregnancy because there’s something wrong with the fetus? We are not that as a society.”