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As the New Hampshire Supreme Court considers the $500 million ConVal education funding decision, GOP lawmakers have come up with a solution for the endless legal drama: Get rid of the Claremont decisions.

In an amicus brief filed with the court this week, a group of 31 House and Senate Republicans justify ending Claremont by linking it to the logic behind the Roe v. Wade decision that created a woman’s right to an abortion. 

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe with the recent Dobbs decision, restoring the right of voters to set the abortion laws in their own states. Like Roe, they argue, Claremont was a bad decision that took authority away from local communities and created endless legal battles.

“In Dobbs, the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged the morass into which it had ventured in 1973 and overruled Roe and Casey, returning the controversial policy issue of abortion to the policy-making branches of the 50 state  governments,” the brief states.

The landmark state Supreme Court Claremont decisions from the 80s and 90s found that all New Hampshire children have a right to an “adequate education” and that the state has a financial obligation to fund that education. 

State Sen. Tim Lang (R-Sanbornton) said the Claremont rulings have done more harm than good, taking away local control from communities and creating the legal environment for the costly ConVal decision.

“The decision has run its course and its not taking into account the entire state of New Hampshire,” Lang said.

But Noah Telerski, with the liberal NH School Funding Fairness Project, said the brief is an example of blame shifting by the GOP lawmakers.

“Instead of owning up to their failure to adequately fund education in compliance with the Claremont rulings, these legislators are instead arguing that Claremont should be thrown out,” Telerski said in a statement. “They are trying to blame the court for their own failure to comply with the court’s rulings over the past 30 years. And this begs the question, what do they think the state’s role in funding education should be?”

Lang, along with House Speaker Sherman Packard (R-Londonderry) and 29 other GOP lawmakers, signed on to the amicus brief, promoted partially by the fact the New Hampshire Department of Justice isn’t trying to overturn Claremont. The DOJ, in representing the state in the ConVal appeal, makes the error of not challenging Claremont, the brief states.

The DOJ is focusing on getting the ConVal decision overturned, but that leaves open the possibility for more lawsuits over school fusing down the line, the brief states.

“If this Court were to reverse the lower court order, it would soon  enough be called upon to pass on the constitutionality of another school funding law, and another, and another, until the Court would be forced to confront the decision the amici are urging it to confront now,” the brief states. 

In the ConVal ruling, Rockingham Superior Court Judge David Ruoff sided with the Contoocook Valley Regional School District which argued the state’s per pupil adequacy grant of $4,100 was too low to provide the constitutionally guaranteed adequate education. Ruoff determined the grants should be a minimum of $7,300 per pupil for every pupil, representing an immediate $530 million spending increase.

Some lawmakers were horrified by the notion of a single judge arbitrarily creating a taxpayer-funded mandate, entirely outside the legislative process.

The $4,100 adequacy grants are average for most districts, but the legislature increases those grants for the poorest communities under the current system, Lanf said. Ruoff’s solution takes away the legislature’s ability to target school aid to poor communities like Claremont, he said.

“Towns like Claremont, towns like Berlin, would be devastated,” Lang said.

A public school teacher was fired for taking a student to an abortion clinic without informing that child’s parents, according to a New Hampshire Department of Education investigative report.

In response to criticism about his statements regarding the inappropriate behavior of some public school employees, Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut released a cache of reports and complaints brought to his department. Included is the investigative report regarding a teacher who called in sick to take a student to have an abortion.

Edelblut declined to comment on the report. The details are scant, and no one in authority would speak to NHJournal on the record about the incident. The names of the school, administrators, and teacher are all redacted, as is the identity of the student. 

According to the redacted document, the teacher had been counseling the student for weeks about her “options,” then helped her terminate the pregnancy.

The teacher reportedly looked up the clinic before the appointment out of concern for the student’s safety. The teacher then called out sick from work with food poisoning in order to go with the girl to the clinic.

“[The teacher] stated that the student didn’t have anyone to support them so they offered to go with them,” the investigation found. 

The teacher was fired soon after administrators discovered the matter, according to the report.

The incident raises questions about transparency at public schools, and reopens the debate over school systems like Manchester that have a policy of keeping information secret from parents. Some New Hampshire lawmakers are outraged.

“I am horrified to hear that a teacher in our New Hampshire schools felt the right way to help a pregnant student who felt unsupported in her pregnancy was to research abortion facilities and call out sick to take a student to an abortion rather than to help her speak with her parents and find support from her family,” said state Rep. Erica Layon (R-Derry).

State Sen. Tim Lang (R-Sanbornton), who’s championed greater parental access to classroom activities and curricula, said schools must stop keeping secrets from families.

“Parents have the right to know everything that is happening to their child in school. Keeping secrets or going behind a parent’s back is never good public policy,” Lang told NHJournal. “It’s not good for the child, either. It teaches children, by the actions of ‘trusted adults,’ it’s OK to be deceptive, which is not creating good citizens for our future.”

Layon says the student’s parents had a right to know.

“By taking the rightful place of that student’s parents, this teacher denied her family the opportunity to step up and support her,” Layon said. “Undermining families should not be taken lightly, and assuming the worst of parents is a dangerous precedent.”

Melanie Israel, the Visiting Fellow in the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation, said New Hampshire parents ought to be concerned that teachers feel entitled to act to this degree.

“I don’t think most parents would be OK with this,” Israel said.

The report indicates the teacher counseled the student during school hours, and then called out sick to take the girl for an abortion — also during school hours. Israel noted public school students generally need parental permission to leave campus or go on field trips.

“This brings up questions for a lot of parents, like who are they entrusting their children to for hours on end everyday? What kinds of interactions outside of teaching are teachers having with their students?” Israel said.

The investigative report does not address whether the teacher broke state law. The age of the student at the time of the abortion is not disclosed in the redacted report, but if she was under legal age, New Hampshire law requires parents to be notified.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office declined to comment on the incident and whether or not the teacher faces possible criminal charges.

Israel said New Hampshire parents deserve to know if any laws were broken in the incident. They should also be aware that if Democrats get their way, parents won’t ever know if their underage daughter is brought to get an abortion by an adult teacher, she said.

President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies are pushing the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would override all state abortion laws, including parental notifications for minors who seek to terminate their pregnancies, Israel said.

New Hampshire’s all-Democrat federal delegation is united behind a federal abortion law that would supersede the laws passed by Granite Staters through their local legislators.

“If this bill were to become law, parents would have no recourse,” Israel said.

University of New Hampshire students are getting a crash course in all things sex this month, from vulva appreciation seminars, instructions on how to come out with an LGBTQI+ identity, sexual device giveaways, to classes on yoga to increase pleasure.

But it suppresses information about nearby pregnancy crisis centers where women can turn for help if needed.

While intense Sextober festivities, put on by the state school’s Health & Wellness Center, focus on teaching college students how to enjoy having sex, it does not include any basic information on how to handle the natural result.

“It’s not really giving people resources if you’re only telling them about safe sex,” said Katelyn Regan, the head of the UNH Students for Life chapter.

The Sextober schedule includes multiple talks and programs aimed at dealing with abortion in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v Wade. The free classes include instructions on how to obtain abortions and contraceptive services. What is not mentioned is what, if any, support UNH offers to women if they choose to keep their babies, Regan said.

“It can be very frustrating,” Regan said. “They are ignoring that pregnancy only comes from sex.”

The pro-life message generally gets short shrift on campus, according to Regan. The Health & Wellness Department will make referrals to the nearby abortion clinic for students seeking the procedure, but it does not refer pregnant women to the pro-life pregnancy center, which is closer to campus, she said.

In a podcast interview with NHJournal, Regan revealed that the Health and Wellness Center won’t allow students to even post information about crisis pregnancy centers on the same bulletin board covered with material from Planned Parenthood.

“Health and Wellness has refused to let us put up any kind of life-affirming resource materials,” Regan said. “They have a brochure wall, and half of those brochures have a lovely little Planned Parenthood stamp on the bottom of them. They won’t let us.”

The school, in general, offers little support and few services for pregnant students, leaving women with a terrible choice, she said.

“It’s not fair for women to have to choose between having an abortion and continuing their education here,” Regan said. “Right now, there is no support.”

There is hope for change on that front. Regan is working with the college administration to change school policies and make the campus more welcoming for pregnant women who want to continue their studies.

Erika Mantz, UNH’s executive director of media relations, said in an email that pregnant students, and students who are mothers of infants, can request “academic accommodations, extensions on assignments, flexible attendance plans, being able to stand rather than sit or sit rather than stand in classes or labs as needed, getting larger workspaces, addressing graduate student funding and benefits concerns as applicable, unrestricted bathroom breaks, etc.”

“Students can request accommodations through the Civil Rights and Equity Office at UNH,” Mantz said.

The college does not make special housing for women with infants available but instead allows those women and their infants to live on campus subject to the same housing plans as other students, according to Matz. The university has one childcare center available, but Mantz said space is limited. 

“Childcare is not guaranteed as there is only one childcare center on the Durham campus. Infant spots are limited, and unless planned in advance, there is often a waiting list,” Mantz said.

The school does offer space for mothers to nurse their infants or express milk, she said. 

The university requires all full-time students to have health insurance. And the plan offered through UNH does include coverage for pregnancy, according to Mantz. 

“The university Student Health Benefit Plan also provides this pregnancy coverage and parents/families can add their children to this plan,” Mantz said.

As for the Students for Life organization, Regan said she and her fellow pro-lifers are subject to regular harassment and threats of violence when they advocate for life on campus.

“We have had the police called on us a bunch of times,” Regan said.

Setting up a table with literature on campus can be tricky, she said. They are subject to protesters, some of whom get in their faces to shout and scream at them.

“Unfortunately, this is something that happens to us a lot,” Regan said.

The group was even subject to a bomb threat made on a social media app this year, she said.

Last year, one of Regan’s friends was followed from the Students for Life table and nearly assaulted by other students angry about the pro-life message. Regan said police did respond to that call, but they were initially sent to investigate the Students for Life during that incident.

Despite the threat being caught on the school’s surveillance cameras, no one was charged, Regan said.

Students for Life members are careful to have all the necessary campus permits whenever they set up a table or hold an event, she said. The group also now has a solid working relationship with the campus police.

“It is our right for free speech to be there as long as we’re not trespassing,” she said. “Campus police have actually been really great.”

New Hampshire’s elected officials responded with anger and outrage to the news of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision, sending the regulation of abortion back to the states and the people. New Hampshire Democrats promised to fight. 

“I am angry and heartbroken by today’s Supreme Court decision. We knew this was coming, but it doesn’t make it any easier. Elections have consequences, and I will never stop fighting for access to abortion and a woman’s right to choose,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said on Twitter.

Sen. Maggie Hassan called the ruling a “radical” decision.

“The Supreme Court’s radical decision to take away a woman’s freedom – her right to bodily autonomy – has pulled us back decades,” Hassan said. “Abortion is a fundamental right. I won’t let this be the final word on our freedom, and I will keep fighting.”

U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster (D) said the conservative majority on the Supreme Court will go further unless Democrats win elections.

“Make no mistake – they are coming for contraception. They are coming for same-sex marriage. Elections matter. Vote,” she tweeted.

Alito’s majority opinion explicitly confronts that particular argument, saying, “Rights regarding contraception and same-sex relationships are inherently different from the right to abortion because the latter (as we have stressed) uniquely involves what Roe and Casey termed ‘potential life.'” However, Justice Clarence Thomas, in a lone concurring opinion, suggested any cases resolved based on “substantive due process precedents” — which includes cases involving birth control and same-sex marriage — should be “reconsidered.”

Governor Chris Sununu released a statement repeating the fact that New Hampshire’s law isn’t impacted in any way by this ruling. “Regardless of this Supreme Court decision, access to these services will continue to remain safe, accessible, and legal in New Hampshire,” Sununu said.

Nevertheless, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-Manchester, still claimed the Supreme Court’s ruling impacted women in the Granite State.

“This decision is a devastating blow against the health, well-being, and personal freedom of women in New Hampshire and all across our country,” Pappas said.

And state legislators like Senate Minority Leader Donna Soucy (D-Manchester) went so far as to “implore” Sununu  “to call the Legislature back in for a special session to enshrine the right to safe, legal abortion care here in New Hampshire.” She did not explain how the court’s ruling affected abortions in the state.

State Sen. Tom Sherman, D-Rye, who is running to unseat Sununu, said he would fight to ensure women continue to have the right to abortion in New Hampshire.

“I trust women to make their own medical decisions, & I will fight to codify into N.H. law the right to a safe and legal abortion,” Sherman tweeted. “Access to safe abortions & contraceptives have allowed women to grow their careers and make choices that are right for them & their families.”

All four members of the state’s federal delegation support the Women’s Health Protection Act, which, if passed, would force states to allow abortions without restriction through all nine months of pregnancy.

Dartmouth Health, the state’s largest healthcare provider, issued a statement on Friday affirming it would continue to provide abortion.

“Dartmouth Health is unwavering in its belief in the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship to make the best-informed decisions for patients to reflect their needs and healthcare priorities,” the statement read. “We also strongly believe that abortion is an essential component of healthcare. Like all medical matters, decisions regarding abortion should be made by patients in consultation with their healthcare providers.”

While Democrats in New Hampshire and national were blaming Republicans for the decision, Kristen Day, Executive Director of Democrats for Life, pointed out that the party’s extremist stance on abortion likely cost it the support needed to protect Roe.

“Abortion activists are responsible for the Roe being overturned. They overstepped by celebrating abortion and advocating for it for up to 9 months. The Democratic Party embraced these extremists leading to Republican majorities all over the country,” Day wrote on Twitter.

New Hampshire Republicans offered muted praise for the ruling, emphasizing the court’s decision moves the issue back to the states.

“I’m proud of my pro-life record in the New Hampshire State Senate,” said Senate President Chuck Morse (R-Salem), a candidate for U.S. Senate. “Last year we settled the law in New Hampshire that permits abortions in the first six months while banning late-term and partial-birth abortions in the last 12 weeks of a pregnancy – a policy that the vast majority of Granite Staters support. This decision has no impact on New Hampshire. I strongly believe that the states should have the right to govern policy in their respective states as the Supreme Court has ruled,” Morse said.

Retired Gen. Don Bolduc, who is also running in the GOP U.S. Senate primary, applauded the court’s decision as well.

“As a pro-life candidate, I believe the Supreme Court made the right decision. After the death and destruction I’ve seen across war-torn places in Afghanistan and Africa, I believe all life should be protected,” Bolduc said. “We must understand that this opinion does not outlaw abortion. It returns the decision to the individual states to make the decision they think is best for their citizens. Here in New Hampshire, our state has already passed our own laws well before this Court decision. That is precisely how the Founding Fathers intended our Constitutional Republic to function.”

Kevin Smith, R-Londonderry, another GOP U.S. Senate candidate, said state legislatures are the appropriate place to make decisions about abortion laws.

“I support returning the matter to the state legislatures, so the people in each of those states have a say in determining when it is appropriate to put reasonable restrictions in place, such as New Hampshire has done on late-term abortions,” he said.

In the GOP primary for the First Congressional District, several candidates were quick to give credit for the ruling to former President Donald Trump.

“I applaud the Supreme Court’s righteous decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Today, life wins, and the rule of law has prevailed. God Bless the Justices, and thank you President Trump!” said Karoline Leavitt, who is hoping to challenge Pappas in November.

Rep. Tim Baxter (R-Seabrook), another candidate in the crowded First District field, also thanked Trump, and said more work needs to be done.

“We need proven conservative leaders in Congress who will stand up against the radical abortionists’ attempts to codify abortion into federal law, and I look forward to defending the lives of the unborn once I’m elected to Congress,” he wrote.

Cornerstone Action, which has promoted pro-life legislation, issued a statement predicting violence against pro-life groups as a result of the decision.

“We expect today’s news will hasten political polarization around the country and inflame a hateful totalitarianism which threatens America’s constitutional order. We must also focus—more than ever—on the physical safety of pregnancy care centers and churches and, ultimately, on protecting the separation of powers and the rule of law,” Cornerstone said.

The Sununu administration appeared to take those concerns seriously.

Friday afternoon, New Hampshire’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division issued a state-wide alert after activists were gathering to protest the decision at several locations throughout the state.

“The State Emergency Operations Center has been partially activated as of 4:00 PM on Friday, 6/24/22 to monitor multiple events taking place across the state in response to a Supreme Court decision.”

Abortion remains legal in New Hampshire up through the 24 weeks of pregnancy despite the worry that the U.S. Supreme Court is set to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision.

The fallout continues from Politico’s leak of a February draft opinion in the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that would overturn the 50-year-old Roe legal framework, sending the questions of abortion back to the states.

Gov. Chris Sununu, who signed into law a late-term abortion ban (it allows unrestricted abortion for the first 24 of pregnancy) said Tuesday he stands by Roe v. Wade.

“As a pro-choice governor, I am committed to upholding Roe v. Wade, which is why I am proud of the bipartisan bill headed to my desk this year that expands access. So long as I am governor, these health care services for women will remain safe and legal,” he said in a statement out Tuesday.

Last year, as the Supreme Court was hearing the arguments in Dobbs, NH Journal asked Sununu if he would take action to protect abortion rights if the Supreme Court overturned the Roe decision. At the time, Sununu scoffed at the idea that Roe was on the docket.

“I’m not really paying attention to that case,” Sununu said. “It’s not an overturn of Roe v Wade, it’s about viability.”

Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed Tuesday that the draft written by Justice Samuel Alito is authentic. However, he added early drafts are common in the Supreme Court’s work and do not necessarily reflect the final outcome. According to the draft, there are five votes in favor of reversing the controversial 1973 ruling that created a constitutional right to abortion within a complex framework of viability.

The ruling is expected to be released sometime in June, though some legal scholars are urging the court to release its decision now in response to the unprecedented leak.

New Hampshire is the only New England state that does not explicitly protect the right to abortion in state law. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, and Rhode Island all have laws on the books affirming access to abortion. New Hampshire, on the other hand, had no restrictions on abortion at any point in a pregnancy when the new law was signed, one of the most extreme pro-abortion states in the country. Connecticut has had abortion rights as law since the 1990s, while the other states passed laws in the past three years as a hedge against a possible Roe reversal.

Now that Roe is in danger, Granite State political leaders are lining up to stake out a position. State Sen. Tom Sherman, D-Rye, who is running to unseat Sununu, sent a fundraising email Tuesday implying Sununu wants to ban all abortions.

“Gov. Sununu has already shown he can’t be trusted to stand up for women’s right to make their own medical decisions,” the email states.

Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, who has been criticized for her flip-flops on border security and oil production, stuck to the party line on abortion, saying Tuesday she supports passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that would assure women the right to access to abortion while taking away the right of states to set limits.

“The unconfirmed SCOTUS opinion would be devastating for women’s freedom,” Hassan said on Twitter. “With a woman’s right to live as a free and equal citizen under attack, Congress needs to codify Roe v. Wade now more than ever.”

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced plans to push for a vote on a bill that would give unlimited access to abortions and override the original Roe decision.

“This is not an abstract exercise. This is urgent,” Schumer said on Twitter. “We will vote on protecting a woman’s right to choose, and every American is going to see which side every senator stands on.”

Ian Huyett, an attorney with the Christian advocacy organization, Cornerstone, said the proposed federal legislation that Schumer and Hassan want to pass would eliminate New Hampshire’s 24-week ban.

“No state laws would be allowed except when there is no ‘less restrictive alternative’ which would advance ‘the safety of abortion services,’” he said,

State Senate President Chuck Morse (R-Salem), who is running in the GOP primary to challenge Hassan, said he would work to keep New Hampshire’s abortion law in place.

“I’m proud of my pro-life record in the New Hampshire state Senate. Last year we settled the law in New Hampshire that permits abortions in the first six months while banning late-term and partial-birth abortions in the last 12 weeks of pregnancy – a policy that the vast majority of Granite Staters support. This potential decision will have no impact on New Hampshire. We will wait to see what the Supreme Court ultimately decides, but I strongly believe that the states should have the right to govern policy in their respective states as this draft opinion would ensure,” Morse said in a statement released by his campaign.

Bruce Fenton, another GOP Senate hopeful, said he also supports the six-month ban.

“I think that the 24-week ban in New Hampshire struck a good balance in protecting the unborn without a radical expansion of state authority,” Fenton said.

Retired Gen. Don Bolduc, another GOP Senate candidate, said he supports New Hampshire’s law. Bolduc wants to see Roe overturned and have states set abortion policies.

“We must understand that this opinion does not outlaw abortion. It returns the decision to the individual states to make the decision they think is best for their citizens. Here in New Hampshire, our state has already passed its own laws well before this court decision. That is precisely how the Founding Fathers intended our constitutional republic to function.”

And former Londonderry Town Manager Kevin Smith, who a decade ago served as executive director of the pro-life group Cornerstone Action, said he supports “returning this matter to the state legislatures so the people in each of those states have a say in determining when it is appropriate to put reasonable restrictions in place such as New Hampshire has done on late-term abortions. Unfortunately, Sen. Maggie Hassan and the extremists in Washington support late-term abortions and taxpayer-funded abortions, and they oppose any and all reasonable restrictions on abortion. That is plainly wrong and vastly out of touch with most Granite Staters.”

Monday night’s leak could galvanize voters on either side of the question heading into the midterms. Vice President of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund Kayla Montgomery said the potential reversal of Roe represents a crisis moment.

“Elections matter. The future of reproductive rights in the Granite State depends on the election of lawmakers who will fight to ensure abortion is safe, legal, and accessible – no matter what,” Montgomery said.

However, Gallup polling over the past two decades has consistently found about 80 percent of Americans oppose Planned Parenthood’s position of abortion without restriction up to the date of birth.

And a NHJournal poll taken in December found just four percent of Granite Staters said they wanted abortion to be the top priority of President Joe Biden and the Congress.

However, a July 2o21 University of New Hampshire poll found 56 percent of Granite Staters opposed the new law while just 33 percent supported it. The legislature has since amended the law to address criticisms of specific issues such as the ultrasound mandate, changes the governor is expected to sign.

New Hampshire House Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn) said New Hampshire voters both left and right want to keep the 24-week restriction in place, no matter what the Supreme Court decides.

“In the past year, pro-choice and pro-life legislators came together to settle on a prohibition of the most extreme and unnecessary late-term abortions. Any forthcoming Supreme Court decision will not change New Hampshire’s position,” he said.

New Hampshire’s Roman Catholic Diocese is not taking part in the annual March for Life, the largest pro-life demonstration in the country, citing concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Diocese of Manchester recently decided to not organize a large, diocesan-wide contingent to attend the March for Life in Washington, D.C., primarily due to the difficulty of monitoring and mitigating the COVID-19 risk with a group of over 100 participants,” said Bevin Kennedy, the diocesan cabinet secretary for communications. 

The decision means that individual parishes that once booked seats on buses the dioceses chartered for the trip to Washington D.C., and secured hotel rooms through diocesan reservations, were left to scramble to make their own accommodations for this year’s trip.

The March is scheduled for Jan. 21, to be close to the Jan. 22 anniversary of the Roe v Wade United States Supreme Court decision being handed down. Claire Pullan, with the March for Life national organization based in Washington D.C., said she’s heard from some groups that normally take part that they are worried about the pandemic.

“People are concerned about what COVID is doing, and what role that’s going to play this year,” she said.

The March organizers are telling people to take the pandemic seriously and take sensible precautions to keep themselves and others safe. The larger problem connected to the pandemic is the costs for the trip. Many groups that relied on charter buses to get down to Washington D.C. are finding the trip costs have effectively doubled.

Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, many bus companies are requiring social distancing in the bus, leaving half the seats empty. Pullan said a group like a school or a church that could charter three buses in past years now has to charter six because of the restrictions.

“There are more costs because of COVID restrictions, and a lot of people are calling,” she said.

The march usually draws hundreds of thousands of activists to participate, but it is hard to guess how many might take part this year, Pullan said. Last year’s march was converted to a virtual event because of the pandemic, and it is not clear if the continued COVID-19 surge will continue to keep people away. Pullan thinks people might want to show up this year especially after dealing with the pandemic for so long.

“People are recognizing the need to stand up,” she said.

Kennedy said the Diocese is encouraging people to attend smaller, local events to mark the occasion and is encouraging individual parishes to hold their own events.

This year’s event comes as many in the pro-life movement believe the controversial Supreme Court decision creating a nationwide right to abortion, Roe v. Wade, may be overturned or significantly curtailed by the Court sometime next year.

New Hampshire Democrats, many of whom support an even more extreme pro-abortion position than the trimester system laid out in Roe, are hoping a backlash on the abortion issue will help them avoid a 2010-style wipeout in next year’s midterms.

However, a new NHJournal poll found that abortion was named as the top issue by just four percent of Granite State voters.