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Gubernatorial candidate Kelly Ayotte was caught lying about her extreme, anti-choice record during an interview with Adam Sexton on WMUR’s CloseUp this morning. Sexton asked Ayotte about her support of the Blunt Amendment, saying, "In the Senate, you were out front on the issue of in vitro fertilization with rights of conscience. You were urging that insurers be able to deny that coverage if that was against their belief.” Ayotte tried—and failed—to lie about her record, saying the Blunt Amendment “had absolutely nothing to do with IVF."
The truth is Ayotte voted for the Blunt Amendment, which would have given insurers and employers the ability to deny coverage for any care — including IVF, birth control, and mental health care — on religious or moral grounds.
Sexton also asked Ayotte if she would support codifying abortion rights into New Hampshire state law. Ayotte again lied and said that access to abortion “is already enshrined in law.”
The truth is New Hampshire is the only state in New England without proactive protections for abortion rights in state statutes or in the state constitution. Republicans in the State House have repeatedly blocked Democratic bills that would enshrine abortion rights into state law.“
Kelly Ayotte is in for a rude awakening if she thinks her extreme, anti-choice record will simply disappear because she went on an eight-year hiatus pandering to corporate special interests,” said NHDP Chair Ray Buckley. “Granite Staters remember that Ayotte has spent her career trying to ban abortion and IVF, defund Planned Parenthood, and roll back reproductive freedom — and we know that’s exactly what she would do as governor. If Ayotte thinks she can waltz back into the public eye without being held accountable for her anti-choice agenda, she's sorely mistaken."
BACKGROUND ON KELLY AYOTTE’S ANTI-CHOICE RECORD:
In 2012, Ayotte voted for the Blunt Amendment which would have allowed insurers and employers the ability to deny coverage for any kind of care — which could include IVF, birth control, mental health care, you name it — on religious or moral grounds.
In 2014, Ayotte led the charge for a national abortion ban in the U.S. Senate.
After losing her reelection campaign in 2016, Ayotte was “honored” to serve as the “sherpa” for Neil Gorsuch’s U.S. Supreme Court nomination — which led to the decimation of abortion rights for millions of people and opened the door for states to ban IVF.
Ayotte supports New Hampshire’s current abortion ban that has no exceptions for rape or incest and mandates criminal and civil penalties of up to $100,000 for health care providers, claiming she “would not change it.”