New Hampshire Governor Refuses to Veto a Spending Bill, Protects Babies from Late-Term Abortions

Recently, the New Hampshire Senate passed a spending bill amendment that would ban late-term abortions, which has been defined as after the 24th week of pregnancy. Though the governor doesn’t necessarily consider himself pro-life, he believes in commonsense abortion limits.

“I’m a pro-choice governor, but like most citizens of the state of New Hampshire, I do not think that we should be doing a late-term or, you know, these at-the-very-last-minute-type abortions,” Gov. Chris Sununu said in a radio interview. “That’s all this really touches upon, and I think most people agree that that’s not appropriate. So, no, I wouldn’t necessarily veto a budget over that.”

His spokesperson Benjamin Vihstadt said, “To be clear, he did not propose this legislative amendment…But he’s not going to veto an entire state budget over a change that would bring NH in line with 43 other states, and any claim that this is a radical restriction is just partisan politics.”

The amendment, which is attached to the budget, is likely to pass, as the New Hampshire House also approved a similar bill banning late-term abortions and Sununu has said that he is not interested in using his veto powers.

This move also puts New Hampshire in line with the vast majority of states that have tried to put some type of limit on abortion. The small number of states that allow abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy for any reason include most of the usual suspects: Alaska, Colorado, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington D.C.

“It has a seriously chilling effect on providers in New Hampshire because it’s criminalizing them with up to 7½ years in prison for doing their job and for helping families,” said Kayla Montgomery, of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.

State Sen. Rebecca Perkins Kwoka, who is pregnant, said that the bill was an “intrusion of the state into one of the most intimate and fundamental relationships on our planet.

“At 27 weeks pregnant, am I not the same mother I was three weeks ago or four weeks ago? What has changed at 24 weeks that no longer makes me the same caring mother?” she said.

However, some women do get abortions without reason.

One woman, sharing her story with The Cut, explained that she got an abortion in order to avoid a further entanglement in a “toxic” relationship.

She said, “I feel like it’s important to share my story because my health wasn’t at risk and because I didn’t have a fetal anomaly — I just needed health care and I sought it out. I remember when I was looking for stories like mine on the internet — anyone who had an abortion later on in their pregnancy, anyone who didn’t have some way to justify it other than they wanted it — and I couldn’t find that anywhere. That broke my heart, and it made me feel isolated and alone and different and wrong.”

The reason that there are so few stories about late-term abortions unrelated to prenatal diagnoses is that the abortion industry and activists know that these don’t play well with the general public.

While some Americans may approve or tolerate abortion early in a pregnancy, most do not approve late-term abortion for any reason.

Even with all of the abortion industry’s propaganda, it’s hard to ignore or completely disregard the reality of a preborn baby as seen on an ultrasound image.

That’s why programs like Focus on the Family’s Option Ultrasound are so important. Seeing their child on the screen is powerfully moving to women who may be considering an abortion.

Photo from Rich Beauchesne/Seacoastonline via Imagn Content Services, LLC/REUTERS