Planned Parenthood NH Action Fund Responds to Sununu's Announcement; Underscores Anti-Reproductive Rights Record 

Today, Chris Sununu announced he is not seeking re-election as New Hampshire governor. This announcement comes after he said he would not be running for president. 

Kayla Montgomery, Vice President of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund, issued the following response:  

“Over a decade in politics, Chris Sununu has defunded Planned Parenthood, vetoed legislation to reduce financial barriers to abortion care, signed New Hampshire’s first abortion ban in modern history into law, and refused to take any action to protect Granite Staters’ abortion rights since Roe v. Wade was overturned a year ago.  

While we wish him well in his next professional chapter, we regret that his time in office resulted in diminishing reproductive rights for Granite Staters. We hope that the next governor of this state marks a return to traditional New Hampshire politics in which our elected leaders, regardless of party, stand by our state’s values of bodily autonomy and personal privacy and act unequivocally to protect Granite Staters’ reproductive freedom.”

BACKGROUND: 

The New Hampshire Landscape: 

• Without Roe, abortion is still safe and legal in New Hampshire until 24 weeks - for now. A bill to ban abortion would have to pass to further dismantle access to abortion.  
• The restrictions on abortion in New Hampshire are clear: access to abortion at or after 24 weeks is banned, with no exceptions for rape or incest and doctors face criminalization.  

• NH RSA 329:49 says “Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed as creating or recognizing a right to abortion.” 
• New Hampshire is the only state in New England without proactive protections for abortion rights in state statutes or our state constitution. 

Chris Sununu’s Record on Reproductive Health and Rights: 

• In August of 2015, after previously supporting routine family planning contracts with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, then-Executive Councilor Chris Sununu cast the deciding vote to defund PPNNE, jeopardizing access to birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing for 14,000 Granite Staters. Just weeks later, he announced his campaign for governor.  

• As a first-time candidate for governor in 2016, Chris Sununu laid out a 5-point plan for restricting reproductive freedom in New Hampshire. 
• In 2020, Governor Sununu vetoed the Reproductive Health Parity Act, which would have removed financial barriers to abortion care for Granite Staters.  
• As candidate for governor in 2020, Chris Sununu said he wasn’t “looking to make any changes on that. I’m a pro-choice governor...I don’t think we’re looking to make any abortion restrictions in this state.” 
• Yet, only nine months later, in 2021, Governor Sununu signed New Hampshire’s first modern abortion ban into law. The original law banned the procedure at or after 24 weeks and had narrow exceptions, and none for fatal fetal diagnoses, rape, or incest. Sununu’s abortion ban also mandated that all people seeking abortion care, at all stages of pregnancy, first undergo an ultrasound, regardless of medical necessity. 
• On November 30, 2021, the day before oral arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, Chris Sununu said: “In terms of this Dobbs case down in Washington, that is not an overturn of Roe v. Wade. It has to do with viability and all this other kind of stuff...I’m not really paying attention to that case. So we’ll see where it goes but that case does not decide Roe v. Wade.” 

• Chris Sununu’s abortion ban was so harmful that the Legislature had to immediately revisit it to mitigate some of the harm it caused. On May 27, 2022, Chris Sununu signed HB 1609, which added an exception for fatal fetal diagnoses to the abortion ban signed into law the previous year and removed the mandatory ultrasound requirement for all abortion care. 
• On June 28, 2022, four days after the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade: Chris Sununu: “Nothing really changes.” 
• As a candidate for governor in 2022, Chris Sununu said he wasn’t “looking to make any other changes in terms of law” but would not rule out signing another abortion ban into law if it was part of another state budget package. 
• In fact, a few days later, Chris Sununu bragged that he was “the first governor in 40 years to sign an abortion ban. Republican governors before me never signed that. I’ve done more on the pro-life issue, if you will, than anyone” by signing an abortion ban into New Hampshire state law. 
• After being urged to sign on to the Washington lawsuit to protect access to mifepristone for Granite Staters, Chris Sununu said, “I think it is just too early,” even though the decision from Texas was already issued. 

Polling: 

• A survey from Breakthrough Campaigns conducted on behalf of Amplify NH shows that a supermajority of Granite Staters - 87% - support reproductive freedom and 64% of Granite Staters expect state elected officials to protect or expand abortion access in New Hampshire. Just 11% of Granite Staters want more abortion restrictions in the state. 
• Polling from Maine, a state with similar support for abortion rights, shows that the majority of Mainers (67%) support expanding access to abortion later in pregnancy. The poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center in February 2023, indicates Mainers trust medical providers and their patients to make decisions about pregnancy and abortion.  
• In a 50-state survey, PRRI found most Americans oppose abortion ban policies; 69% of Granite Staters believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. 

• August 2022 polling 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. 
• Polling released in July, 2021 from the UNH Survey Center shows that New Hampshire’s newly-enacted abortion ban is deeply unpopular, with only one-third of Granite Staters in support of it. Nearly half of independent Granite Staters oppose this ban, as do 27 percent of Republicans. 
• The truth is, most Granite Staters and most Americans support access to safe, legal abortion. If someone has decided to have an abortion, more than 8 in 10 respondents want the experience to be supportive and nonjudgmental, without added burdens or protesters, affordable and safe. 

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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.