On Thursday, the Senate is expected to pass SB 36, purportedly an “abortion statistics” bill. In reality, this bill has been drafted by lobbyists for the abortion industry. In its current form, SB 36 will let the abortion industry publish completely fabricated statistics in official DHHS reports.
New Hampshire is one of only 4 states in America that does not collect abortion statistics—and Cornerstone has been calling for an abortion statistics law since 2004.
The abortion industry is now attempting to exploit pro-lifers’ desire for statistics with this deceptive bill, written directly by paid lobbyists for Planned Parenthood and unanimously supported by Senate Democrats. While on the face of it this bill is a positive step, in reality, it is a duplicitous means of allowing abortionists to get away with lying to the people of New Hampshire about both the number and gestational age of babies aborted in our state each year.
Under SB 36, abortionists will never face any consequences for willfully submitting manufactured statistics, which DHHS will then publish as true.
In theory, the bill’s penalty is a $100 administrative fee to be imposed by DHHS. Yet our Patients’ Bill of Rights contained a similar, $2,000 DHHS fine. Dartmouth openly and flagrantly violated the law for six months—and DHHS never imposed any penalty.
Many examples show that, on polarizing cultural issues, New Hampshire’s left-wing state agencies will simply never impose an administrative penalty under any circumstances. This law will be no exception.
For this reason, an abortion statistics law requires—at minimum—a misdemeanor penalty for willful violations, which SB 36 does not contain. Without a working enforcement mechanism, this bill will produce pro-abortion propaganda—not factual statistics.
Because it was written by Planned Parenthood lobbyists, the bill is also full of other weasel clauses. For example, the bill does not require that abortionists report the actual gestational age of the child. Even Massachusetts still requires abortionists to report the child’s gestational age. This means that, were the bill passed, pro-abortion forces in our state could use it as an excuse to prevent the passage of a truly effective statistics bill, while never providing the public with any meaningful information on the abortions performed in New Hampshire.
The function of this bill is to give the abortion lobby special government privileges, favoritism enjoyed by no other sector of the medical field, and the ability to use DHHS to lie to the public. For this reason, Cornerstone strongly opposes SB 36. Tell your senators to vote against this pro-abortion deception bill.
