Cornerstone supports HB 578, introduced by Rep. Keith Murphy (R-Bedford), to prevent abortions of viable preborn children. The bill addresses women’s safety, the autonomy of physicians, and the right of children who survive abortion to be cared for.
“To tolerate the killing of such human beings, not as the unintended outcome of efforts to protect a woman but as a direct intentional action in itself, is simply uncivilized,” wrote Cornerstone board member Shannon McGinley to members of the New Hampshire House Judiciary Committee. “What we have before us is legislation to move New Hampshire away from the position it now holds, where abortion is available throughout pregnancy. That is frankly a barbaric position to defend.”
Addressing the House Judiciary Committee at the bill’s February 1 hearing, Murphy noted that his bill would apply to pregnancies of gestation 21 weeks plus five days, at which point the pregnant woman’s physician would need to make a determination of fetal viability before any abortion were to be performed. Murphy showed the committee members photos of children born prematurely, as early as 21 weeks, and urged his fellow legislators to acknowledge that such children deserved the care they received. Aborting preborn children at the same stages of development “strikes me as brutal and inhumane.”
Along with other supporters of the bill who spoke at the Judiciary hearing, Murphy pointed out that the lack of an abortion statistics law makes it impossible to verify whether, and how many, abortions of viable children are being performed in New Hampshire.
Murphy added that the language of the bill is consistent with the Supreme Court’s decisions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Danforth.
