The abortion landscape has changed but the votes didn’t when New Hampshire Republicans rejected family planning contracts Wednesday for the fourth time in less than a year.
The Executive Council — which approves nominations and state contracts — voted 4-1 to deny funding to the Equality Health Center, Lovering Health Center and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. The contracts, which were supported by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, would have funded cancer screenings, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, contraception and other routine health care services for more than 16,000 low-income women.
The outcome was the same when the council voted in September, December and January. Wednesday was the first vote since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion.
“On the national landscape ... we know that women’s services as a whole are under assault. There is considerable discussion in Washington about limiting access to contraception, which is really what brings us to this discussion today,” said the council’s lone Democrat, Cinde Warmington.
“These services are more critical than ever in our state,” she said.
Republican councilors previously had raised concerns that public money would pay for abortions and continued to vote no even after audit reports confirmed that funds were not commingled.