CONCORD, New Hampshire, June 28, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – New Hampshire pro-abortion Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed legislation Friday that included a limit on abortion at 24 weeks and later.
“I have always supported a woman’s right to choose and never opposed late-term abortions,” Sununu previously said, though he had pledged to sign the bill. “If they keep it in the budget, and I suspect they will, I will not veto the budget,” he said. “Do you want me to scrap a $13 billion budget for this one item? I will not do that.”
The budget bill, HB 2, “(p)rohibits the distribution of state funds awarded by the department of health and human services to a reproductive health care facility for provision of abortion services, and prohibits a health care provider from performing an abortion if the gestational age of the fetus is at least 24 weeks unless there is a medical emergency.” It does not allow exceptions for rape, incest, or fetal anomaly.
“The prohibition of late-term abortion is supported by history and the common law,” the legislative findings portion of the bill said. “In addition, there is substantial medical evidence that a fetus by at least 20 weeks’ gestation has the capacity to feel pain during an abortion,” the authors of the legislation said.
HB 2 also requires ultrasounds before abortions and would punish abortionists who violate late-term abortion restrictions.
“Any health care provider who knowingly performs or induces an abortion in violation of this subdivision and knows that the fetus has a gestational age of at least 24 weeks, or consciously disregards a substantial risk that the fetus has a gestational age of at least 24 weeks, shall be guilty of a class B felony and, in addition to any other penalties the court may impose, be fined not less than $10,000 and not more than $100,000,” HB 2 said.
In addition, the bill implements a version of the Protect Life Rule, instituted by the Trump administration, that prohibited Title X family planning dollars from being given to corporations that commit abortions, such as Planned Parenthood. President Joe Biden withdrew the pro-life policy upon taking office.
Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, had criticized HB 2. “I think it's despicable. It is clearly people who don't understand the ramifications of what they have done,” Shaheen, a former abortion lobbyist, said.
“The state of New Hampshire had no legal restrictions on abortion when Shaheen was governor from 1997 to 2002,” The New Hampshire Union Leader reported.
A fellow U.S. Senator and former Granite State governor also took issue with the pro-life budget bill and called it “devastating.”
“New Hampshire’s partisan state budget is devastating for families across the state and includes an extreme abortion ban that limits a woman's freedom to make her own health decisions,” Senator Maggie Hassan said. “It will take all of us coming together to undo these harmful policies,” the pro-abortion Democrat complained.
The legislation also limits the teaching of critical race theory and “divisive concepts.” Under the bill, New Hampshire schools are barred from teaching that the United States is “fundamentally racist or sexist” or that an individual is “inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive” because of his or her race.
State police had to respond to hundreds of demonstrators who entered the state house on Thursday to protest HB 2, according to Patch.com.