It sounds a lot like Democratic state Sen. Tom Sherman will end up running for governor this year, as the medical doctor from Rye is clearly taking aim at Republican Gov. Chris Sununu over the combustible issue of abortion.
Sherman, who has launched a committee to explore whether he should run for governor, charges that the state budget that Sununu signed last summer – that includes a ban on abortions after 24 weeks of gestation and mandatory ultrasounds for all women before a pregnancy is terminated – is “one of the most egregious abortion bans in the country.”
“How could the governor have signed something like this?” Sherman said. “What was he thinking?”
The gastroenterologist and ranking member and former chair of the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee made his comments in an interview earlier this week with the Monitor, hours after he took a big step towards launching a gubernatorial campaign.
Sherman called abortion “one of the most important issues.”
“The reason it’s important is it’s cruel,” Sherman said. “It’s one of the most egregious abortion bans in the country. It’s gets right into what New Hampshire people say it’s not OK to do. That’s between a doctor and their patient.”
Sherman argued the state has no businesses making medical decisions for women.
It’s “telling a woman that we as a state know better than you do,” he said. “And it’s forcing women to undergo medical procedures with no medical or clinical indication and it’s making it impossible for a woman with a child who is not going to survive to have that pregnancy terminated without the doctor facing criminal charges, felony charges.”
Abortion has been a leading issue among Democrats as they try to topple to popular three-term Republican governor.
The New Hampshire Democratic Party and allies like Amplify NH and Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund have all taken aim at the governor over what they call the “Sununu abortion ban” since he signed the budget into law last June.
Sununu, who’s long highlighted that he’s “pro-choice” when it comes to abortion, has pushed to make changes to the abortion provisions in the budget. But Republican lawmakers in the GOP controlled State House squashed Democratic attempts to scale back the ban by adding exceptions for rape, incest, fatal fetal anomalies, and a mother’s health, and eliminating fines and prison time for doctors who violate the law.
This week one of those bills, HB1609, passed the House by a 179-174 vote. It would allow abortions after 24 weeks in cases of rape or incest or when doctors detect a fatal fetal anomaly. It also clarifies the ultrasounds requirement for women only after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
“This is another step in the right direction as we work to make necessary changes to our laws,” Sununu said in a statement Thursday. “I urge the House Finance Committee and members of the State Senate to keep up the momentum and get this bill across the finish line.”
Sununu has so far been unsuccessful in urging the Republican controlled Executive Council to refund three family health care facilities operated by Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, Equality Health Center, and Lovering Health Center, which provide abortion services.
Sherman, in his interview, also criticized the governor over another item in the budget the state’s “Freedom from Discrimination” law, which began as a ban against teaching certain “decisive concepts” in school, like the concepts of systemic racism, sexism, and unconscious bias, or the idea that the state of New Hampshire or the United States is fundamentally racist or sexist.
“He signed the budget that allowed for divisive concepts. What is this? What is he talking about?” Sherman said. He charged that the governor’s “talking about censoring teachers, the people who are most important in our children’s lives other than their parents. That’s not the New Hampshire way. That has to stop.”
Sherman brought up the state’s well publicized mental health crisis.
“COVID really showed us how deep the wounds are,” he said, adding “that’s something as a doctor, as a physician, I know how to treat. I know how to solve these problems. I know we can do it, but we have to do it together.”
The governor, in Thursday’s State of the State Address, emphasized that “when it comes to mental health, we continued to face that challenge head on.”
Sununu said “a key piece of the transformation effort is to increase capacity in community-based services. This means providing access to mental health care for children and families before they find themselves in crisis, reducing the need for emergency room visits.”
Sherman said he would like to unite the state as opposed to the ongoing divisiveness coming out of Concord.
“Over the last two years with COVID, with this current legislature and with some of the governor’s actions, he’s really split us as New Hampshire residents, losing touch with what is the most important part of New Hampshire, which is the New Hampshire way,” Sherman said. “We have a long tradition of working together across party lines to reach consensus, to move forward, to solve problems and I’m not seeing that. I haven’t seen that in at least two years.”
But Sununu, in Thursday’s address, also took aim at political divisiveness, arguing that in New Hampshire “we have worked hard to keep it from holding us back.” And he warned that “if you are here to relish the attention over a fight that gets us nowhere, I have no patience for that. I have never and will never let our state be hijacked by these radical elements on either side.”
Sherman told the Monitor that in the next four to six weeks he’ll make a decision on whether to run for governor.
It will take a good amount of fundraising for Sherman to effectively campaign against a sitting three term governor whose approval ratings, while flagging over the past year, are still in positive territory.
“I’ve shown in past elections that I can raise funds that I need to get the job done,” Sherman said. “I assume that I will be able to do that. But this is an opportunity for me to make those calls and talk to people and really make sure I have the support to do this.”
Sherman said he’s also hoping to avoid a gubernatorial primary battle.
“My goal is not to end up in a primary of Democrats. We’ve seen in prior elections that doesn’t do very well. The primary is so late,” Sherman said. “I have talked to pretty much everybody that I can to do everything I can to make sure there isn’t a primary.”