Seacoast Online | Is new NH bill a travel ban on abortions or sex trafficking prevention? What politicians are saying

By Margie Cullen | Originally Published by Seacoast Online

A New Hampshire bill introduced Wednesday would make the transportation of most minors for an abortion without parental consent illegal.

Bill sponsor state Rep. Glenn Cordelli, R-Tuftonboro, said that the bill’s aim is to prevent sex trafficking.

“This is about making sure that parents have rights to know what's going on in the life of their minor children,” Cordelli said to the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety committee. “It's about predators and traffickers who prey on young girls, as we've seen around the country, and as I've indicated, happened right here in New Hampshire, and protecting those young girls from the undue influence of those predators and traffickers.”

Under the bill, HB 191, an adult who intentionally transports a minor for an abortion without written and notarized consent from the parents would be guilty of a class A misdemeanor. The punishment would not apply to the minor, and the bill would not apply to minors who are emancipated.

Critics say bill will restrict abortion 

Opponents of the bill said that it would restrict access to abortion.

Rep. Mary Hakken-Phillips, D-Hanover, said that the bill would mean that minors now need parental consent prior to receiving an abortion, calling it a “dangerous shift in control.”

“This law shifts the power of a young person to decide their own reproductive fate to power of a parent who may not have the child's best interest in mind,” she said.

Dr. Cynthia Rasmussen, a retired obstetrician gynecologist, said that the bill will make access to abortion care more difficult for the most vulnerable pregnant teenagers, like those who cannot talk to their parents for safety or other reasons, by creating criminal penalties against those that could help them. 

Is the bill a travel ban on abortions?

Courtney Reed, policy advocate at the ACLU of New Hampshire, and others said that the bill would infringe on one’s right to travel.

“The bill has a provision regarding obtaining or procuring abortions with language it states, ‘regardless of the location,’” said Reed. “And so what this bill is doing, in effect, would be prohibiting interstate travel. It would mean that it would be difficult for individuals to go to other states where they would be legally accessing care and then being at risk of criminal offenses in New Hampshire.”

Rebecca Hart Holder, the president of Reproductive Equity Now, called it a “travel ban” in a press release.

“Despite their false claims, 'abortion trafficking' simply does not exist,” Holder said. “Travel bans are about one thing: control. Controlling our bodies, movements, and freedoms. Travel bans are the next step in anti-abortion extremists’ playbook to make essential reproductive health care unattainable, especially for young people.”

Jason Hennessey, the president of New Hampshire Right to Life, said that the bill is “in a sense” a travel ban.

“It bans abusers, sex traffickers and predators from traveling to get rid of the evidence of their crime against a minor girl with an abortion,” he said, speaking in support of the bill. “I'm okay with that.”