In case you missed it, States Newsroom reported on how the threat of a nationwide abortion ban — which Don Bolduc’s record makes clear that he would support — is a major concern for NH voters.
States Newsroom: How claims about a federal abortion ban are roiling New Hampshire as the midterms near
By Jennifer Shutt
Voters in this swing state are among the relatively few Americans who will decide control of Congress during November’s midterm elections, shaping domestic and foreign policy for the next two years and delivering a verdict on Joe Biden’s presidency.
[…] In New Hampshire, the choice when it comes to reproductive rights is particularly stark in the U.S. Senate battle, where Democratic incumbent and former governor Maggie Hassan is attempting to secure reelection against GOP nominee Don Bolduc.
[…] Hassan, who defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte by a slender 1,017 votes in 2016, is up by 3.6 percentage points, according to Real Clear Politics. She also has a distinct cash advantage, with $4.8 million in her campaign war chest at the end of September, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
[…] Bolduc claimed that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision this summer didn’t overturn Roe v. Wade. He also said the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization “only” sent the issue back to the states, which isn’t entirely true.
“So the role of the U.S. Senate and the federal government is not to be involved. And that’s what the Dobbs decision did. It didn’t reverse Roe v. Wade,” Bolduc said during the debate, before alleging Hassan should know the Supreme Court “only moved it down to the state level.”
The U.S. Supreme Court held in its ruling in late June that “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.”
That decision didn’t allow only state legislatures to enact new abortion laws, but opened the doors to federal legislation as well, since Congress consists of elected representatives.
Bolduc has tried to imply the issue cannot be taken up at the federal level under the Supreme Court’s ruling. Yet GOP members of Congress have been racing to introduce legislation.
House Republican leaders said in September they’ll pass abortion legislation if they regain control of the chamber following the midterm elections and South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced a 15-week nationwide abortion ban in September, five weeks shorter than the 20-week ban he introduced during the last Congress that garnered 47 co-sponsors.
Hassan, during an interview with States Newsroom following campaign stops on Oct. 19, said voters cannot trust Bolduc on the issue of reproductive rights, especially after statements he made during the primary.
Bolduc has called New Hampshire’s 24-week abortion law too lax, said people should “rejoice” after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling this summer, and said he would “always default for a system that protects lives from beginning to end,” according to NHPR.
“His position is very clear. There is absolutely nothing in his record to support his current claims,” Hassan said.
“What his record supports is that he would be a yes vote for a nationwide abortion ban – something Republicans in Washington have clearly been working to pursue for decades, including making sure there were new Supreme Court justices, who in their confirmation hearings said that they would respect precedent and then clearly didn’t when they got into the position of power they have,” she said.
Read the full article at New Hampshire Bulletin
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