The New Hampshire Medical Society this week encouraged its members to sign a letter from Planned Parenthood expressing opposition to legislation that would criminalize late-term abortions, according to a whistleblower.
How we got here: The New Hampshire legislature is considering a state budget legislation that includes a section that would make it a felony to perform abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy. Doctors who break the law would be looking at a prison sentence of up to 7 years and a minimum fine of $10,000.
The story: In response, Planned Parenthood prepared a letter, meant to be signed by medical professionals in New Hampshire, to voice opposition to the measure. According to an email that the New Hampshire Medical Society sent to its members, which was provided to the Daily Wire by an unnamed whistleblower, the letter is to be sent to the state’s governor, Chris Sununu (R), in an apparent effort to indicate that the medical community disagrees with the bill.
The NHMS email urged members of the organization to sign the Planned Parenthood letter.
“This language is a clear interference between the doctor-patient relationship and goes on to criminalize providers for performing this procedure,” the organization wrote to its members in a June 9 email. “Planned Parenthood NH has drafted a letter they plan to send to the Governor and are hoping to have physicians signed on to show opposition to this section of the budget.”
The email contained a link to the letter and noted: “You can review the letter and sign on here.”
A note on the Planned Parenthood letter asks potential signatories to sign it by 5 p.m. on Friday and refer any questions to Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund’s Senior Director of Public Affairs Kayla Montgomery, or NHMS’s director of advocacy Michael Padmore.
The Daily Wire notes that it was Padmore who sent the email to NHMS’s members.
The Planned Parenthood letter calls the ban “arbitrary” and claims that it “interferes with the patient-provider relationship in complex circumstances.”
“We, as medical professionals in the state of New Hampshire, strongly oppose the medically unjustified regulation of health care as proposed in the current state budget (HB 2 Sections 37-40). Decisions about a patient’s medical care and management are always best made between the patient and their clinician,” the letter says.
“We are especially alarmed that this ban criminalizes clinicians with up to 7 years in prison. New Hampshire already struggles to retain medical professionals, and we are deeply concerned that these criminal penalties will undermine our state’s efforts to recruit and retain clinicians. Furthermore, these criminal penalties will erode trust between medical experts and the public,” it continues.
“This language has no health or safety benefit to patients. It overrides a clinician’s judgment with a government mandate, compromises evidence-based, patient-centered care, and represents ill-advised interference in the practice of medicine,” the letter concludes. “We urge Governor Sununu to trust New Hampshire’s medical experts by vetoing the state budget.”
You can read the full letter here.
Worth noting:Â Sununu has suggested support for a ban on late-term abortions.
“I’m a pro-choice governor, but like most citizens of the state of New Hampshire, I do not think that we should be doing late-term or at-the-very-last-minute-type abortions,” the governor said. “That’s all this really touches upon. And I think most people agree that that’s not appropriate. So, no, I wouldn’t necessarily veto a budget over that.”
