N.H.’s restriction on abortion, now set at 24 weeks of pregnancy, would change to 20 weeks under a bill scheduled for a public hearing Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee.
Backers of Republican-sponsored House Bill 1590 say it would clear up a discrepancy in state law.
Legislation that went into effect in 2022 prohibits most abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy in New Hampshire. A separate criminal code adopted in 2018 allows someone who attacks a woman to be charged with murder for the death of her fetus if it is at least 20 weeks old.
Rep. Kelley Potenza, R-Concord, who is a co-sponsor of HB 1590, says she wants state law to be consistent in how a fetus is considered.
“But this is going to get twisted and turned into an abortion conversation and it really shouldn’t,” she said in an interview Monday.
Potenza said much thought and testimony went into the establishment of the 20-week standard in the homicide law, and “it would be talking out of both sides of our mouths” if the separate, 24-week restriction is allowed to stand in the abortion law.
She also noted that the vast majority of abortions occur early in a pregnancy in any case.
According to the Mayo Clinic, most premature births occur between 34 and 36 weeks of pregnancy. A baby born before 28 weeks of pregnancy would be considered extremely preterm. The earliest preterm baby to have survived was 21 weeks old.
The state’s current abortion restriction law, called the “Fetal Life Protection Act,” has exceptions allowing an abortion beyond 24 weeks to save the woman’s life or if the fetus has fatal defects. Those exceptions would continue under HB 1590
Advocates for reproductive rights, including Planned Parenthood of Northern New England spokesperson Kayla Montgomery, oppose the bill.
She noted that the title of the bill says it is “an act harmonizing the age of personhood under the criminal code and the Fetal Life Protection Act.”
But Montgomery said backers of the measure are after something more than just making state law more consistent or harmonious.
“Despite the innocuous sounding title, this is an abortion ban,” she said.
“Although proponents say they are trying to align two separate sections of state law, the reality is that these two sections of law have nothing to do with each other, because one is medical and one is criminal.”
She promised that representatives from her organization and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire as well as abortion providers will attend Wednesday’s hearing.
The House Judiciary Committee will eventually make a recommendation on HB 1590 to the full House.
In order to become law, it would have to pass the House and Senate and be signed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who has said she does not favor abortion restrictions greater than what is now in state law.
Rick Green can be reached at 603-352-1234, extension 1435, or rgreen@keenesentinel.com.
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