NH governor vetoes conscience protection bill for medical professionals

New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte vetoed a bill that would have protected medical employees from committing or participating in abortions when the had a conscience objections.

Key Takeaways:

• House Bill 232 was meant to protect medical employees from being forced to partake in abortions.

• The bill passed the House in March and the Senate in May.

• Gov. Kelly Ayotte vetoed the bill, saying it was unncessary.

• Countless medical professionals with conscience objections to abortion have faced pressure to participate in abortion procedures and abortion-related activity.

The Details:

House Bill 232 would have ensured that medical employees were protected from being forced to participate in abortions based on their "sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction." Healthcare facilities would have been required to provide employees with written notice of their right to request reasonable accommodations and to file complaints with the state if those accommodations are denied. The bill passed the House in March and passed the Senate in May. Abortion is legal through 24 weeks in New Hampshire and after 24 weeks for babies who receive a serious diagnosis or when the mother faces a medical emergency.

Gov. Ayotte vetoed the bill, saying that such a law already exists at the federal level. During her campaign, she had promised not to enact any further pro-life laws in the state, and in 2025 she vetoed a prenatal education bill.

State Rep. Katy Peternel, who supported the HB 232, said it was written to "protect health care professionals from being forced to participate in the ending of a human life." She added that it would have helped New Hampshire "attract providers who value motherhood and family."

Ayotte, however, said on Thursday that the bill was not necessary. “Federal law has long protected the religious beliefs or moral convictions of medical professionals and the right to decline to perform or assist an abortion. This federal right of conscience protects those in New Hampshire who work for abortion providers. Therefore, this bill is unnecessary and does not create any greater protections for New Hampshire medical professionals," she said.

Kayla Montgomery of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England celebrated the veto. "On behalf of the Granite Staters who overwhelmingly opposed this anti-abortion bill, a solution in search of a problem, we thank Governor Ayotte for keeping her vow to veto anti-abortion legislation," . Over the past two years, the Legislature considered 16 anti-abortion bills, and all have failed thanks to the commitment and determination of reproductive health and rights supporters, advocacy organizations, legislators, patients, and providers."

The Bottom Line:

The bill was not "a solution in search of a problem." Pro-life healthcare professionals face issues with conscience protections across the country. In 2020, Fracis Manion, senior counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice said that in just a two week span, "I have spoken with a nurse threatened with termination for questioning her hospital’s allowing an abortion to be performed, a doctor threatened with firing over her request to be accommodated when faced with administering a certain drug that she believes is an abortifacient, and a technician told he must sign a form that would effectively require him to participate in abortions whenever his employer unilaterally decides that patient care requires him to.”

Megan Kreft, a physician assistant working under the umbrella of the Catholic health care organization, Providence Medical Group, said that after accepting her position she was called into a meeting with her medical director and the regional medical director after she refused to prescribe Plan B because it can act as an abortifacient.

In 2019, a nurse at the University of Vermont Medical Center won a lawsuit after being forced to assist in an elective surgical abortion. She had been told she had to participate because even her personal opposition to abortion could be grounds for termination.