While Republicans held a press conference at the State House, Granite State Democrats held a campaign rally on the Dobbs decision anniversary — the latest sign they see abortion as a political winner for their party.
All four Democrats in the federal delegation were on hand Monday evening as several hundred supporters gathered, along with state legislative leaders like deputy House Minority Leader Alexis Simpson (D-Exeter), who told the crowd, “Above all, one person is to blame for this chaos. Donald Trump.”
Simpson was referring to the three conservative justices Trump nominated during his presidency to the U.S. Supreme Court who later overturned Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing a nationwide right to an abortion, in favor of having state legislatures decide the issue.
In New Hampshire, lawmakers approved a measure ahead of the Dobbs decision that allows for unrestricted abortions up to 24 weeks, or six months. The law also has health exceptions during the third trimester. Nearly every Democratic speaker Monday night referred to it as an “abortion ban.”
State Sen. Donna Soucy (D-Manchester) addresses abortion supporters on second anniversary of Dobbs decision at New Hampshire State House.
Hours before the Democrats gathered, Republicans held a press conference of their own in the same location to draw attention to what they say is a false campaign by the other side to gin up fears that the GOP wants to ban the practice in the Granite State.
It was there that New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Chris Ager announced the launch of a six-figure ad campaign aimed at beating back the Democrats’ “misinformation and fear campaign surrounding New Hampshire’s reproductive health laws.”
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen mocked that move.
“They promised us that they’re not going to do anything more to roll back women’s reproductive rights,” Shaheen said, drawing jeers from the crowd. “Do we believe that? No way, we don’t believe them.
“We’ve seen continuous attacks from MAGA Republicans and the New Hampshire GOP on our freedom. It is time for New Hampshire to take back the corner office.”
Interestingly, the top two Democrats competing for their party’s nomination for governor, Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington and former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, did not attend Monday’s event. Instead, it was President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris who received the most shoutouts from speakers like U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, who said, “Today’s focus, of course, is the threat of another Donald Trump presidency.”
The Democrats’ post-Dobbs strategy worked during the 2022 midterms, when the abortion issue successfully kept Republicans from capturing significant majorities in both houses of Congress.
Hassan briefly took aim at former Senate President Chuck Morse and former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, the two Republicans angling for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. She said Morse during his time as a legislator “was the key architect of New Hampshire’s abortion ban” while Ayotte “called for the overturning of Roe v. Wade even before the Supreme Court did so” and “voted multiple times to defund Planned Parenthood.”
Craig later issued a press release chiding Republicans over their announcement.
“New Hampshire residents know we cannot take them at their word, and we cannot trust Kelly Ayotte to protect reproductive freedom,” she stated.
U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster, who will not be seeking another term, decried the idea that voters would be allowed to decide for themselves what New Hampshire’s abortion laws should be, arguing the Supreme Court had already made that decision via the “legal precedent” of the Roe decision.
“We cannot leave women’s health and reproductive freedom to the political whims of state legislatures, and thank goodness we have such legislative leaders right here,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas claimed Republicans are “threatening reproductive freedoms” and “prioritize the ego of a former president (Trump) over actually delivering what the American people want.”
Meanwhile, guest speakers included actor Tony Goldwyn and abortion advocate Kaitlyn Cash, who talked about her experience in Texas navigating the Lone Star State’s new abortion laws.
“I was being turned away from care, care that would protect my physical and mental health and my prospects of growing my family all because of the dangerous abortion bans in Texas,” Cash said, cautioning that her experience “could be the reality here in New Hampshire.”
Goldwyn pointed out that Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, has stopped calling for a “national abortion ban” but “refuses to rule out signing one” should Congress put it on his desk if he’s elected president.
In April, Trump took to his TruthSocial account to tell his followers that abortion is an issue that should be left up to individual states. Trump has, however, claimed credit for overturning Roe v. Wade.
“And even now, today, you hear him on the news backpedaling on this issue because he knows he’s the dog that caught the car,” he said.
Goldwyn said Biden and Harris are “fighting like hell for our reproductive freedoms” and added that “as long as they are in the White House, a national abortion ban will never become law.”
“This November, voters are going to teach Mr. Trump a very valuable lesson,” he said. “You don’t mess with Americans’ freedoms.”
