Reproductive rights a year after the Dobbs ruling

By SUZANNE PRENTISS, MARY HAKKEN-PHILLIPS and KAREN LIOT HILL

For the Valley News

Suzanne Prentiss is a New Hampshire state senator serving District 5. Mary Hakken-Phillips is a New Hampshire state representative serving Grafton District 12. Karen Liot Hill is a Lebanon city councilor.

Ayear ago, June 24, 2022, the reproductive rights landscape in our nation changed dramatically when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Many of us shared a sinking feeling that our nation had taken a major step backward in the fight for reproductive rights, and over the past year, those fears have been validated.

The Dobbs decision shifted the statutory responsibility and protection for reproductive care onto the front steps of every statehouse in this nation, creating a system where reproductive health care access could differ dramatically from state to state. Some states — like Vermont — took action to affirmatively protect the right to abortion care in state law, even passing an amendment to their state constitution. Here in New Hampshire, however, the attacks have only grown worse.

Reproductive rights in the Granite State were restricted significantly two years ago when Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law the state’s first abortion ban, at 24 weeks with few needed exceptions and including the criminalization of care providers.

Some argue that there is no need to guarantee a right to abortion care in New Hampshire law since current law allows for access to abortion up to 24 weeks, but we disagree. Federal law no longer protects abortion rights, and it is now the job of state legislatures, including New Hampshire’s, to do this work.

Granite Staters facing complicated, personal medical decisions and their care providers are vulnerable as the majority parties in New Hampshire’s Legislature, Executive Council and corner office refuse to address the affirmative protections and reproductive health care needed and wanted in the Granite State.

The New Hampshire Senate and House have turned down at least three opportunities to proactively affirm and enshrine abortion care into law up to 24 weeks. Legislation to further limit access to abortion care to just eight weeks — when many people don’t even yet realize they may be pregnant — and to eliminate abortion access completely were introduced in the current legislative session and will certainly be reintroduced next year.

This year, the majority-Republican Executive Council has refused to fund medically sound sex ed classes and Planned Parenthood clinics, reducing access to reproductive care including screenings for cancer and STIs. As the attacks on reproductive rights continue, the alarm wails on and it grows louder by the hour, the day and the week — calling us all in to the fight.

On this anniversary of the Dobbs decision, let those of us who believe in restoring the promise of Roe and protecting reproductive health care access recommit ourselves to the fight.

Fight by registering to vote and learning which candidates on next year’s ballot will affirmatively act to restore choice and support reproductive health care in the Granite State.

Fight by donating money, resources, and/or time to ensure those pro-choice candidates are elected to all levels of government.

Fight by supporting reproductive health care organizations when their contracts are before the Executive Council. Fight by letting the governor know that judicial nominees to the state Supreme Court must support the right to privacy and choice.

The fight for the future of reproductive care in the Granite State is up to each of us.