NH House Stands Up for Women’s Ability
to Make Private Medical Decisions
House Defeats Two Anti-Choice Bills—HB 1662-FN & HB 1454-FN

Concord, N.H. –Today the NH House rejected government intrusion into the private medical decisions of women and their families with the defeat of two anti-choice bills—HB 1662-FN and HB1454-FN. HB 1662-FN was defeated 243 to 110. HB 1454-FN was defeated 218 to 140.

“The New Hampshire House trusts women to make private medical decisions,“ said Pilar Olivo, interim executive director for NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire. “Legislators stood up for the values of freedom and privacy and said no to allowing political interference in the decisions women make in consultation with their doctors.”

Under the guise of protecting women, HB 1662-FN would have created numerous obstacles to women's ability to access the full range of reproductive-health options. The bill would have established a mandatory delay of 24 hours for any woman seeking abortion care. The defeated measure also included politically motivated provisions that would single out abortion providers by imposing medically unnecessary regulations unrelated to improving women’s health-care services. In addition, the measure would have required spousal notification, a provision that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional.

“It is unfortunate and outrageous that anti-choice politicians continue to look for ways to interfere with the doctor-patient relationship,” Olivo said. “Instead of working on ways to improve women’s access to basic health care, they’d rather play politics with health care.”

The House also rejected HB 1454-FN, which would have required young people to get written parental consent for each medication or medical procedure—in direct conflict with current New Hampshire statutes which allow young people to receive for drug and alcohol abuse, mental health issues, family planning and sexually transmitted infections without involving their parents.

“The New Hampshire House takes a fact-based, realistic approach to young people’s reproductive health care. The vast majority of young people turn to a parent when accessing medical care—and that’s good,” Olivo said. “But this bill failed to take into consideration those young people who cannot turn to a parent but may need access to medical care.”

Olivo said the House had considered this type of legislation 13 times since 1998. An unconstitutional parental-notification law was passed in 2003 and then repealed in 2007.

“New Hampshire has asked and answered the question of whether it’s necessary for politicians to interfere in family communication 13 times since 1998. The answer is still no,” Olivo said.

NARAL Pro-Choice New Hampshire was joined in its opposition to these HB 1454-FN and HB 1662-FN by the Reproductive Rights Coalition, whose members include The Concord Feminist Health Center, The Feminist Health Center of Portsmouth, NH Civil Liberties Union, NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.

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