Latha Mangipudi (D-Nashua), Maria Perez (D-Milford), and Safiya Wazir (D-Concord) are state representatives
As immigrant women, we are proud to mark International Women’s Day, reflect on the progress we’ve made, and recommit to the work before us.
In 2015, the United Nations named gender equality as one of their sustainable development goals. Gender equality depends on reproductive rights; when women have the bodily autonomy to control their reproductive health and futures, it leads to greater relationship stability, higher educational opportunities, and increased average career earnings.
Today, we celebrate global advancements in reproductive justice, including moves to legalize and expand access to abortion care in Colombia, Argentina and Mexico. Unfortunately, despite this progress, we mourn that the United States is moving backward when it comes to safe, legal, accessible abortion.
Globally, the poorest girls and women have the least power to decide if or when to become pregnant. Nationally, as state legislatures move from chipping away at reproductive rights to sledgehammering them, we have begun to see those same disparities play out.
In 2021 alone, nearly 600 abortion restrictions were introduced nationwide, with 90 enacted into law, including New Hampshire’s first abortion ban in modern history. These barriers to care disproportionately impact marginalized communities, like immigrants and New Americans, people of color, and people with lower incomes, which further exacerbates existing inequalities in our country.
To be clear — the fervent anti-abortion activity across the country, and in New Hampshire, is deeply out of touch with the values of Americans and Granite Staters.
There is no state where banning abortion is popular.
Last month, the UNH Survey Center released polling showing that a majority of New Hampshire Democrats, Republicans and independent voters want the next Supreme Court Justice to preserve Roe v. Wade.
Only 20% of Granite Staters want to see the landmark case that guaranteed abortion rights across the country overturned. Unfortunately, by the time the next justice is seated, it could be too late.
By June, Roe may no longer be the law of the land; 26 states could immediately or quickly make abortion illegal.
In the lead up to this moment, states didn’t start with extreme 6-week abortion bans like Texas’ bounty hunter law. They started with restrictions lawmakers describe as being “reasonable” like waiting periods, state-directed “counseling,” and ultrasound mandates. They started with bans on abortion later in pregnancy. And then they got bolder. We know their end goal is to outlaw abortion altogether.
In anticipation of the pending Supreme Court decisions, state legislatures have introduced more abortion bans that fly in the face of current constitutional protections, including 15-week bans in Florida, Arizona and West Virginia.
New Hampshire must act quickly and swiftly to push back on all efforts to restrict abortion access and enact proactive protections for reproductive rights.
For decades, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle trusted New Hampshire women to make personal, private health care decisions without government interference. In 1997, then Gov. Jeanne Shaheen worked with Republicans in House and Senate leadership to repeal New Hampshire’s pre-Roe anti-abortion laws.
Until the turn of this decade, under Republican and Democratic majorities, bipartisan coalitions worked together to protect and expand access to the full range of reproductive health care.
What we’ve witnessed during this biennium is a dangerous departure from tradition and New Hampshire values that jeopardizes the wellbeing of our citizenry.
Still, we remain hopeful.
The State House is reverberating with public outcry over a budget signed into law containing not only an abortion ban but a government mandate that all people seeking abortion care first undergo an ultrasound, even if it’s medically unnecessary.
We hear your advocacy and your outrage.
While we firmly believe the abortion ban should be repealed in its entirety, we are heartened to see some Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate join efforts to mitigate the harm this abortion ban causes and enshrine protections for abortion access in state law.
As immigrants, we believe the United States should continue to serve as a global beacon of personal freedom and reproductive liberty for all.
As women, we believe our right to choose if, when, and how we start a family is integral to our self-determination, economic success, and personal freedom.
As mothers, we believe our children should have more rights and opportunities than we were afforded, not fewer.
As lawmakers, we will never stop fighting to ensure every Granite Stater has access to the safe, legal abortion care they need, without stigma, shame or government interference.