New Hampshire GOP Candidates for Congress Have Adopted Trump’s Extreme Anti-Reproductive Health Care Platform

As President Trump prepares to visit New Hampshire on Friday on the heels of the Republican National Convention, it’s clear that the Trump administration’s anti-health reproductive care and rights rhetoric has been adopted by extreme out-of-touch candidates for U.S. Congress in the Granite State.

These candidates’ policies stand starkly at odds with the values of Granite Staters and people nationwide. A record-high 77 percent of Americans say they do not want to see Roe v. Wade overturned, and in New Hampshire 64 percent of people believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Abortion Rights

Every Republican candidate for U.S. Congress (NH01, NH02, Senate) in New Hampshire publicly supports restricting access to safe, legal abortion, and many of them support banning abortion entirely, with limited exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the woman. Trump-endorsed candidate Matt Mowers, who’s running against reproductive health champion Rep. Chris Pappas, has even gone to the extreme of saying he would “like to find common ground” when it comes to exceptions for rape or incest. 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to stack the federal courts with anti-abortion and anti-health care judges, including U.S. Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. Following this summer’s  5-4 Supreme Court decision in June Medical Services v Russo, in which a Louisiana abortion restriction was struck down, Vice President Pence responded by tweeting, “After today’s disappointing decision by SCOTUS, one thing is clear: We need more conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.”

So-called “Born Alive” Legislation

At the behest of the Trump administration, the GOP continues to push so-called “born alive legislation,” which criminalizes doctors and is not based in science or reality. Trump-endorsed candidates Corky Messner and Matt Mowers have said that they would support this inflammatory legislation if elected. Matt Mayberry, who has deceptively referred to himself as “pro-choice,” also supports this legislation.

When so-called “born alive” legislation was introduced this year in New Hampshire, dozens of medical experts showed up at the State House to oppose it, noting that doctors already have an obligation to provide appropriate medical care. To suggest otherwise is false, offensive, and dangerous.

Affordable Care Act

In June, the Trump administration filed a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the ACA, potentially wiping out coverage for as many as 23 million Americans, including women, people with low incomes, people of color, LGBTQ people, and young people. If the ACA is repealed, more than 62 million women could lose access to no-copay preventive services, including birth control, STI screenings, life-saving breast cancer screenings, HIV screenings, and Pap tests. SCOTUS is scheduled to hear oral arguments for this case on Nov. 10, directly after the Presidential Election

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, one of the Senate’s strongest health care champions, has fought to defend and improve on the ACA and its essential health benefits. Meanwhile, her opponents Corky Messner and Don Bolduc have both stated that they support a private health care system. Bolduc has said he would “use my influence” to advocate for “a health care system that promoted life.” 

Title X Family Planning Program

Last year, the Trump administration introduced a domestic gag rule that forced Planned Parenthood and other family planning providers out of the Title X family planning program, a bipartisan federal program established by the Nixon administration in 1970 to provide essential reproductive health care to low-income or uninsured people. 

Corky Messner supports taking the Trump administration’s attacks on essential reproductive health care even further by “eliminating federal funding for abortion providers” and redirecting the funding to coercive crisis pregnancy centers. Don Bolduc said he supports defunding Planned Parenthood health centers. 

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has been a leader in fighting the domestic gag rule as well as the Global Gag Rule, which endangers the health and safety of women and families abroad. She co-introduced the Global HER Act which would permanently repeal the Global Gag Rule. 

The bottom line is that the candidates running against New Hampshire’s congressional delegation this November are more extreme than ever before. If elected, they would carry forward the Trump administration’s anti-reproductive health care agenda and endanger health care access for thousands of Granite Staters and millions nationwide.

The incumbent congressional candidates up for reelection -- Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Rep. Annie Kuster, and Rep. Chris Pappas -- are champions for reproductive rights and will continue working to expand and protect access to reproductive and sexual health care if reelected.