Lawmakers heard testimony on two separate abortion bills yesterday.
The Legislature will consider at least half a dozen related measures this year.
New Hampshire Public Radio?s Dan Gorenstein reports last year?s passage of the parental notification bill has ushered in a sense of optimism for abortion opponents.
The same House Judicial Committee originally supported the parental notification bill last session,
It?s busy again this year reviewing other bill pertaining to abortion.
Tuesday the first bill they heard sought to eliminate public funding to any organization that provide abortions.
Then, New Hampton Representative Fran Wendleboe introduced a bill to collect statistics on abortion.
Track 6
1:36 it?s a very simple bill. But as we all know, the simplest bills tend to take a turn. There are two aspects to this bill. One deals with data collection the other deals with who in NH can legally do an induced termination of pregnancy. I will tell you this bill was introduced two years ago and went to ....
Many of the abortion bills that fail to pass the Legislature are recycled year after year.
But Dover Representative Phyllis Woods says this session things seem different.
7:26 having a pro-choice governor had a chilling effect on the way some people voted. I think at least we don?t have that chilling effect. We know at least if we can get a bill passed the House and Senate, than it more than likely will be supported by the governor.
Woods is one of about 119 state representatives that make up what they call the pro-life caucus.
The Representative says while there are about seven anti-abortion bills this year, the caucus is supporting only two.
The data collection one just introduced and another that makes it a crime to kill a fetus.
7:53 I think it is encouraging, we are optimistic. We are seeing a little bit of the tide turning. We are certainly not getting close to outlawing abortion in NH, by a long-stretch. But I think we are trying to...or had some small successes in turning the tide back of being a little bit more of a moderate state.
:10 clearly what we see in the 2004 session is a real sense of emboldeness by those who seek to restrict abortion, having their first success in thirty years last year, with the passage of parental notification law.
Northern New England Planned Parenthood?s Jennifer Frizzell.
...Having an anti-choice Governor who welcomed more restrictions for abortion to arrive on his desk.
Frizzell says given last year?s unprecedented support for anti-abortion legislation, this session is a watershed for lawmakers.
2:27 ...will this legislative session correct the course of last year, which showed NH legislators abandoning their long time heritage on being libertarian and keeping government out of medical decisions, or will this session signal NH has turned a corner and turned it for good, when it comes to inviting restrictions and interference around reproductive options and pregnancy decisions.
Frizzell also noted that many of the bills introduced contain components courts have ruled unconstitutional, like the recent federal decision on the state?s parental notification bill.
Representative Phyllis Woods says even if courts do strike down New Hampshire laws, she is willing to take that fight to the Supreme Court.
For NHPR News, I?m DG.
