The New Hampshire House has passed a budget with language “to ensure that public funds are not used to subsidize abortions directly or indirectly”. The proposed budget now goes to the Senate for consideration.
While New Hampshire has long protected taxpayers from most abortion funding (there are exceptions), the new House language calls for complete physical and financial separation of abortion from family planning. This would mean that an entity seeking a contract with the state to provide family planning services – say, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England – would not be eligible unless its abortion business were set up as a separate entity.
Faced with a deadline for vacating its borrowed venue, the New Hampshire House ended crossover day by effectively tabling a number of bills including HB 430, buffer zone repeal.
The House met on April 7, 8, and 9 at NH Sportsplex in Bedford, allowing for seating spaced according to current COVID protocols. Friday the 9th was crossover day, the deadline for all bills originating in the House this year to be disposed of one way or another. Leaders in both parties knew in advance that the Sportsplex needed the House to adjourn by early Friday evening in order to accommodate other users of the facility.
The deadline came, with many bills still unaddressed. Result: in the absence of a vote, the unaddressed bills – including buffer zone repeal – will not advance in 2021.
At this writing, the docket for HB 430 lists its status as “miscellaneous.” That’s one way to put it.
Screenshot of HB 430 docket, from gencourt.state.nh.us, accessed 4/12/2021
To my knowledge, there is nothing to prevent these deferred bills from coming back in 2022, since that will be part of the same legislative biennium.
This isn’t over. Repeal bills will keep popping up, year after year. There ought not be room in New Hampshire law for a statute that allows a private entity to bar the presence of peaceful people from a public space.
New Hampshire’s buffer zone law permits managers of abortion facilities to determine where and when the public may be present on public property within “up to 25 feet” of a facility.
The buffer zone law was signed by then-Governor Maggie Hassan in 2014 with support from abortion lobbyists, despite the McCullen v. Coakley decision issued by the U.S. Supreme Court the same month striking down a similar Massachusetts law.
For links to Leaven for the Loaf coverage of the buffer zone law since its introduction, see “The Buffer Zone Story.”
The New Hampshire Senate Judiciary committee will hold hearings on Tuesday, March 30 on two life-issue bills, HB 233 and HB 625.
The hearing on HB 233, to protect infants who survive attempted abortion, will be at 1 p.m. A hearing on HB 625, to limit late-term abortions, will follow at 1:30. Hearings are still being held remotely, via Zoom videoconference. Members of the public can register online in advance to testify . The same sign-in process is used to register support or opposition without providing testimony.
Members of the public may view the Senate Judiciary hearing using the following links:
Link to Zoom Webinar: https://www.zoom.us/j/91687899729
To listen via telephone: Dial (for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): 1-301-715-8592, or 1-312-626-6799 or 1-929-205-6099, or 1-253-215-8782, or 1-346-248-7799, or 1-669-900-6833
Or iPhone one-tap: US: +13017158592,,91687899729# or +13126266799,, 91687899729#
From my inbox comes this announcement of a special online event, courtesy of WICX radio in Concord. “Roe v. Wade” is a new film drama about the 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion nationwide. Tickets are available for a limited time at a discount from the full price, which will go into effect when the film gets a wider release in April. Read on for ticket information.
I’m looking forward to viewing the film myself. Does it have a point of view? I’d say so; Alveda King is one of the executive producers.
You’ll find a trailer for the film at the bottom of this post.
Would you like to help support pro-life efforts, learn things that you might not have known, and enjoy a new star-studded movie at a discounted ticket price? WICX 102.7 Hope FM in Concord is hosting an online screening of the movie “Roe v. Wade” during March 2021.
Buy a ticket for your online screening now! Click here: Buy a Ticket (https://www.watchroevwade.com/nhrtlwicx). That discounted ticket will give you a 30-day window to complete your private screening before the movie’s April release date. [Note: the ticket costs $14.24, which includes the processing fee.]
Be a pro-life advocate, support this important cause, and spread the word about the online screening event to everyone!
Note: Please keep in mind that the film is rated PG-13 and might not be appropriate for younger viewers.
A subcommittee of the N.H. House Finance Committee voted 4-3 along party lines on March 22 to recommend that abortion providers receiving state funds for non-abortion work move their abortion business into a free-standing program. The vote came as part of the subcommittee’s work on the state budget for the upcoming biennium.
Next stop for the committee’s proposal is the full House Finance Committee.
Kevin Landrigan of the New Hampshire Union Leader reported on the subcommittee session chaired by Rep. Jess Edwards (R-Derry). “Edwards said for these providers ‘all money is fungible,’ and the amendment is meant to prevent these providers from mixing grant spending.”
Translation, as near as I can figure: if this provision winds up in the state budget – and that’s a BIG “if” – any health care provider that also provides abortions will have to create a separate legal and financial entity for its abortion business. Otherwise, the provider would not be eligible for state funding.
