Foes of legislation to protect born-alive infants are trying to rush a vote through the New Hampshire Senate on SB 741-FN. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted Tuesday, February 11 to recommend Inexpedient to Legislate on the bill, which seeks to protect all born-alive infants, including those who survive attempted abortion. In an unusual move, the full Senate intends to vote on the bill only two days after the committee vote, during its session on Thursday, February 13.
CALL TO ACTION: Call your State Senator before Thursday, February 13 to OVERTURN the committee recommendation, and instead vote OUGHT TO PASS on SB 741-FN. Emails are better than nothing, but because of the short deadline created by the Senate’s own decision, phone calls will be far more effective in this situation.
You can look up your Senator’s name here, and find contact information for Senators at this link on the General Court website. Note that the only phone numbers provided on that site are for the Senators’ offices in Concord. Leave your brief, clear, courteous message: please overturn the committee recommendation, and then vote Ought to Pass on SB 741-FN.
SB 741-FN calls for medically appropriate and reasonable care for infants who are born alive, including those who are born following attempted abortion. For more information about SB 741-FN, read Cornerstone’s testimony on the bill.
The committee vote was 3-2 along party lines, with Democrat Sens. Thomas Sherman of Rye, Martha Fuller Clark of Portsmouth, and Shannon Chandley of Amherst in the majority.
Republican committee members Sens. Jeb Bradley of Wolfeboro and James Gray of Rochester, co-sponsors of SB 741-FN, opposed the ITL recommendation.
Anyone voting ITL on SB 741-FN will be going on record rejecting the compassionate, commonsense policy expressed in the bill’s Statement of Finding: “The general court hereby finds that it is the purpose of the state of New Hampshire to assert a compelling state interest in protecting the life of any infant born alive as a legal person for all purposes under the laws of the state of New Hampshire, and entitled to all the protections of such laws, including the right to medically appropriate and reasonable care and treatment.”
