Senate Protects Fetal Life Protection Act

CONCORD, NH – Senate Majority Leader Sharon Carson (R-Londonderry), released the following statement today on the Senate voting against SB 461, relative to repealing a construction provision of the fetal life protection act:

“New Hampshire’s current law prevents abortions in the 7th, 8th, and 9th month of pregnancy and nearly 80% of Granite Staters approve of this law. This bill would have repealed RSA 329:49, a one-line statute that says nothing in the Fetal Life Protection Act shall be construed as creating a right to an abortion. This bill would not weaken our current 24-week abortion law, however, what is lacking are accurate statistics on the number of abortions performed in our state.

New Hampshire is an outlier for not recording abortion statistics. 46 states and the District of Columbia require hospitals, facilities, and physicians who provide abortions to submit regular and confidential reports to the state. This bill closes the gap in medical data our state has by requiring confidential reporting of abortion statistics at least annually to the Department of Health and Human Services who will then report the information to the General Court of New Hampshire.”

Background: SB 461 implements data collection on abortion statistics in New Hampshire. This bill does not change the 24-week abortion ban and does not infringe on the confidentiality of women who get abortions. Vital health statistics will now be updated to include abortions in addition to other health data the state already collects.