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Today, Senator Tom Sherman, State Representative Amanda Toll, and Dr. Wayne Goldner of Bedford, a retired OB/GYN, hosted a press conference where they spoke out against Chris Sununu’s abortion ban that Senate Republicans forced into the budget. Last week, Sununu promised to sign a budget that will ban abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest, require medical providers to give women forced ultrasounds, and charge doctors with felony penalties, including up to 7 years in prison, for taking care of their patients Read excerpts from their remarks below and watch the press conference here: Senator Tom Sherman: “These are complex, difficult and deeply personal medical decisions. Decisions that should be made by the pregnant patient in consultation with their doctor. This is about providers and patients who are facing incredibly devastating personal decisions. Politicians do not have a role to play in the examination room, and we should not be banning safe and legal abortions. That’s why doctors in New Hampshire like myself, regardless of what area of health care we practice, are strongly opposed to this abortion ban because we understand that these are complex and difficult medical decisions should be made between a patient and their doctor, not by a politician and certainly not in a budget. Let’s be very clear -- despite what the Governor has falsely claimed, his budget and its abortion ban is extreme, it is dangerous, and the biggest attack on reproductive freedom we’ve seen in the Granite State in years.” Representative Amanda Toll: “I want to start by making it very clear that Governor Sununu is an anti-choice governor, because anyone who supports this budget and who has the governor’s anti-choice record, cannot be pro-choice...As someone who has had an abortion, I can speak to just how devastating Governor Sununu’s anti-choice policies are to pregnant people in the Granite State...I know firsthand that no one — especially politicians in Concord — should interfere with this intensely personal decision between a pregnant person and their doctor. But that’s exactly what the Governor is trying to do — by potentially criminally charging doctors for taking care of their patients, by forcing pregnant people to have ultrasounds, by denying pregnant people, even those who have survived rape and incest, the fundamental right to make their own choices.” Dr. Wayne Goldner of Bedford: “I practiced obstetrics and gynecology for 35 years and that included the provision of abortions. No woman ever plans to have an abortion and it is with great emotion and reflection that they choose to terminate their pregnancy. But that decision must be made between a patient and their doctor. It should not be up to politicians in the State House, or Governor Sununu. The anti-abortion, anti-choice amendment to HB 2 is a confusing, cryptic, onerous piece of legislation that will complicate and delay indicated care, increase costs, and likely cause increased morbidity and mortality to the women involved.”
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