The House, Thursday, March 23, 2023

Rep. David Love (R - Rock 13)Thank you, Mister Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. I rise in opposition to the committee report of Inexpedient to Legislate on HB 582. HB 582 has nothing to do with prying into private medical records of anyone. In fact, HB 582 isn't much different than a highway accident statistic study. Where the accidents happen, under what conditions and leading to how we can cut down on accidents. Over the last few decades, New Hampshire taxpayers have funded the family planning program to the tune of several million. What we have essentially been doing is the equivalent of throwing money to the wind and hoping it helps. If we use some of the family planning funds to educate teens, both male and female now, about the consequences of unprotected sex, we may just save them from lifelong mental anguish that many experience after abortion. I had a close family member that spent 28 years suffering from a burning guilt as a result of an abortion at the age of 14. She had multiple suicide attempts, was institutionalized roughly 10 times, along with suffering chronic alcoholism and drug addiction. She died at the age of 42 from uterine cancer, but in her own words, "The doctors might have found the cancer in time if I had gotten my butt off the barstool." Uterine cancer is commonly cured if found in time. The combination of guilt and alcoholism killed her just as much as cancer. As legislators, we have an obligation to help the young women of New Hampshire and do all we can to collect anonymous information so the tragedy of post abortion guilt and its horrific implications can be minimized or possibly avoided altogether. Former President Bill Clinton once said that abortion should be accessible and rare. New Hampshire needs the information that HB 582 will provide in order to fulfill the latter part of President Clinton's statement. In conclusion, HB 582 is the anonymous gathering of data, data that will help the young women of New Hampshire. And again, any statements to the contrary are inaccurate and untrue. Please press the red button to overturn the committee recommendation of Inexpedient to Legislate so another motion can be made. Thank you, Mister Speaker.

Rep. Lucy Weber (D - Ches 5)Thank you, Mister Speaker. Nothing in this bill will prevent personal tragedy. What the bill will do is that it will require providers of induced termination of pregnancy to collect 15 different categories of information about every person seeking the procedure, a medical procedure that is legal. Then to transmit that data, all of it intensively personal, deidentified but on an individualized basis, to the New Hampshire Bureau of Vital Statistics. Much of the information required to be collected has no relevance for the provider with respect to the medical care provided. Part I, Article 2-b of the New Hampshire Constitution, passed in 2018, states that an individual's right to live free from governmental intrusion in private of personal information is natural, essential and inherent. Government inquiry into the most personal of medical decisions and practices, such as methods of contraception, previous terminations, previous still births, previous births, how many children born alive still living, marital status from the time of conception to the time of termination, educational level, race and ethnicity. That's pretty personal information and this is a small state and deidentified information, well, what could possibly go wrong with that? The collection and transmission of this information is an infringement of the right to be free from governmental intrusion guaranteed in the New Hampshire Constitution. We have all learned about the risk that the data can be reidentified and linked to individuals. The amendment offered in committee would change that so that parts would be voluntary, without any discussion about how that would be defined, but the facts remain. First of all, this data is personal and second, if that data sought is to be used for statistical and public health purposes, if it was voluntary, the data wouldn't be complete and wouldn't be very useful. Finally, if informing public health decisions is the goal, the majority notes that this kind of information is not collected about other medical treatments, even those other treatments which are also intimately intwined with maternal health and child birth. So, what could possibly go wrong? Think about data collection. Think about the data leaks you have heard of. Think about your personal privacy and vote green on the ITL. Thank you.

Rep. Glenn Cordelli (R - Carr 7)Thank you, Mister Speaker. Thank you for taking my question. I'm wondering if you have any idea how many states do not collect such information? Representative Weber: As we have often been told here, this is New Hampshire, and we do things the New Hampshire way.

Speaker PackardThe House will be in order. The motion before us is the majority committee report of Inexpedient to Legislate on HB 582. Are you ready for the question? A division has been requested. Members take your seats. The motion before us is the majority committee report of Inexpedient to Legislate on HB 582. The Chair recognizes Rep. Layon for a parliamentary inquiry. The House will be in order.

Rep. Erica Layon (R - Rock 13)Thank you, Mister Speaker. If I know today that the only people that have statistics on abortions in New Hampshire are the abortion providers. And if I believe that the legislature could better allocate family planning dollars if we had access to anonymized data. And if I know that by overturning this ITL motion, we will have the opportunity to consider language on page 92 that would allow us to provide information requested by the CDC and allow women to volunteer the reason why they were led to a decision that they wish they never had to make. And finally, Mister Speaker, if I know that the only way we can live up to President Clinton's desire for accessible and rare abortions is to be able to know how often we've reached this point, would I then press the red button? Thank you.

Speaker PackardThe Chair recognizes Rep. Weber for a parliamentary inquiry.

Rep. Lucy Weber (D - Ches 5)Thank you, Mister Speaker. If I know that the reasons that I have reached any medical decision that I have reached are none of my healthcare providers business and are none of the state's business. And if I know that it applies to every single medical procedure that every single one of us undergoes, would I now vote red to preserve the privacy of every single one of us...

Rep. Lucy Weber (D - Ches 5)or perhaps I ought to have said green because you get in a rut sometimes. Thank you. Please press the green button.

Speaker PackardThe motion before is the majority committee report of Inexpedient to Legislate on HB 582. This is a division vote. If you are in favor, you'll press the green button. If you are opposed, you'll press the red button. Voting stations are open for 30 seconds. Have all members present had an opportunity to vote? The House will attend to the state of the vote. 205 voting Yea, 177 voting Nay, the committee report is adopted.