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This morning, Annmarie Timmins from the NH Bulletin reported on the chilling impacts that Governor Sununu’s extreme and cruel abortion ban will have on pregnant women and doctors who perform abortions in New Hampshire. According to medical providers interviewed by NH Bulletin, the “medically dangerous” ban would “require a mother to carry a fetus that cannot live on its own” and “discourage medical providers from working in New Hampshire.” Sununu’s cruel abortion ban includes no exceptions for rape or incest or fatal fetal anomaly, and includes felony penalties -- of up to 7 years in prison -- against doctors. It would also subject women to invasive mandatory ultrasounds. NH Bulletin: Medical experts challenge lawmakers’ thinking on abortion ban Key Excerpts:
“The 24-week abortion ban headed to Gov. Chris Sununu’s desk would do more than just dictate a deadline providers say is medically dangerous. It would require a mother to carry a fetus that cannot live on its own. And it threatens doctors with prison time, requires a costly and unreliable medical procedure, and requires providers to provide the state with abortion statistics – something lawmakers have always rejected.”
“‘(Lawmakers) don’t understand that this kind of medical care can’t be legislated because there are very unique situations,’ said Dr. Oge Young, a retired obstetrician and gynecologist who sent Sununu a letter Monday signed by 200 health care providers objecting to the ban.”
“The legislation also requires the health care provider to perform an ultrasound after 24 weeks to determine the fetus’s gestational age. It’s costly – someone without insurance would pay between $168 and $1,480 for that procedure – and not reliable, Young and Goldner said. The accuracy of an ultrasound at that point in a pregnancy is plus or minus a week, Young said. They must be done much earlier – at six or eight weeks – to be reliable.”
“A health care provider who violates the ban can be charged with a Class B felony, which carries a prison term of 3½ to 7 years, and fined between $10,000 and $100,000. In some circumstances, the mother and father of the baby as well as its maternal grandparents can sue the provider for physical and emotional injuries. Young said the risk of criminal prosecution for a medical procedure that requires difficult and fluid medical decisions will discourage medical providers from working in New Hampshire.”
Read the full article here.
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