New Hampshire House Defeats Abortion Ban
March 17, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Hampshire House Defeats Abortion Ban
CONCORD – Today the New Hampshire House defeated HB 1220, a bill that would have banned certain abortion procedures. NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire Executive Director Laura Thibault applauded the vote, “New Hampshire legislators clearly recognized the threat that such a ban would have posed to women’s health and lives”. HB 1220-FN is similar to a federal bill recently enjoined by three separate federal courts on the basis that it failed to include a health exception - the same standard the Supreme Court relied upon in their decision in Stenberg v. Carhart in 2000. “Supporters of this legislation continue to ignore the United States Supreme Court requirements that restrictions on abortion must include exceptions to protect the health and lives of women. This bill, like the parental notification bill passed by the legislature and overturned by the courts last year, failed to include a health exception. Furthermore, the bill failed to include an exception to protect women’s lives; revealing the true intent of this legislation – to restrict abortion regardless of the costs to women’s health and lives”, Thibault concluded.
Organizations such as The American Medical Association, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Women's Association, the American Nurses Association and the American Public Health Association oppose these bans.
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