New Poll: Support for Abortion Rights in New Hampshire at Historic High, Extreme New Hampshire Politicians Out of Touch with Voters

Manchester, NH -- A new poll released Monday by the Saint Anselm College Survey Center shows that support for abortion rights in New Hampshire is at a historic high and nearly 6 in 10 voters disapproved of the overturning of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022. Full polling results can be viewed here. 

Statement from Kayla Montgomery, VP of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood NH Action Fund:

“Granite Staters overwhelmingly support access to abortion rights.  Polling shows the politicians who perpetrated the recent attacks on safe, legal abortion and family planning services are losing ground with voters. Clearly, anti-abortion politicians are deeply out of touch with New Hampshire values. Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned and we have lost our constitutional right to legal abortion, elections in New Hampshire matter more than ever.  This November, we must elect reproductive rights champions who recognize that Granite Staters should have the freedom to make their own personal, private health care decisions. Our fundamental rights shouldn’t be decided by politicians every two years, but in a post-Roe country, that’s exactly what is now at stake. PPNHAF PAC was proud to endorse a slate of candidates for the Executive Branch last month.” 

Additional Information:

Since the 2020 election, New Hampshire has become a hostile state for sexual and reproductive rights, including:

• On June 25, 2021, Sununu signed New Hampshire’s first abortion ban in modern history into law. Sununu’s abortion ban criminalized doctors, required forced ultrasounds for all people seeking abortion care, and failed to make exemptions for rape, incest, or fatal fetal diagnoses. In May of 2022, HB 1609 was signed to remove the ultrasound requirement and add a fatal fetal diagnosis exception to the law. 
• Executive Councilors Kenney, Stevens, Gatsas, and Wheeler voted against family planning contracts every single opportunity they have had, including 4 times in less than a year (July 2022, January 2022, December 2021, and September 2021). Councilors Kenney, Stevens, and Gatsas voted to defund PPNNE, Lovering Health Center of Greenland, and Equality Health Center of Concord. Councilor Wheeler also voted to defund non-abortion providers. This is a 1 million dollar loss for the three providers.  “The result,” DHHS Commissioner Lori Shibinette said, “is equivalent to reducing access to health-care services for low-income women.” 
• Proactive protections for abortion rights were rejected in both bodies in the spring of 2022 (SB 436 and HB 1673). NH is the only state in New England without state protections for abortion rights. 
• Multiple bills to restrict or eliminate access to abortion were introduced in the last biennium, including HB 1477, a near-total abortion ban;  HB 1181, allowing any man to petition a court to block a pregnant person from accessing abortion care; and HB 625, a ban on abortion later in pregnancy, which was added to the state budget and signed into law. 

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Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund (PPNHAF) is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization formed as the advocacy and political arm of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England in New Hampshire. The Action Fund engages in educational and electoral activity, including voter education, grassroots organizing, and legislative advocacy. The Action Fund makes independent expenditures on behalf of or in opposition to targeted candidates for public office. Follow us on Twitter. PPNHAF maintains a separate, segregated political committee and fund to make direct campaign contributions to endorsed candidates (the PAC).