Action Item: Contact all members of the House Finance Committee today and urge them to not eliminate the NH Family Planning Program.

Please copy and paste these email addresses for the House Finance members: 
kweyler@aol.com, Dan.McGuire@gc.nh.gov, Gerald.Griffin@gc.nh.gov, Keith.Erf@gc.nh.gov, maureen.mooney@gc.nh.gov, jess.edwards@gc.nh.gov, Harry.Bean@gc.nh.gov, Jose4NH@comcast.net, Daniel.PopoviciMuller@gc.nh.gov, Joe.Sweeney@gc.nh.gov, Gary.Daniels@gc.nh.gov, brian.seaworth@gc.nh.gov, Susan.DeRoy@gc.nh.gov, Rich.Nalevanko@gc.nh.gov, mjwallner@gc.nh.gov, prleishman@aol.com, Kate.Murray@gc.nh.gov, Karen.Ebel@gc.nh.gov, Laura.Telerski@gc.nh.gov, Mary.HakkenPhillips@gc.nh.gov, Jerry.Stringham@gc.nh.gov, David.Preece@gc.nh.gov, Rosemarie.Rung@gc.nh.gov, Chris.Muns@gc.nh.gov, Eileen.Kelly@gc.nh.gov

Republican members of the House Finance Committee are seeking to eliminate the entire NH Family Planning Program, which would threaten essential medical and reproductive care for lower-income Granite Staters.

The New Hampshire Family Planning Program provides important services to NH's neediest residents - free and low-cost testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, birth control, cancer screenings, pregnancy tests, and counseling. It costs the state roughly $840,000 to operate each year, according to state budget documents. It receives almost $1 million annually from the federal government. 

NH Republicans have caused shortfalls in the state's budget by eliminating the Interest & Dividend Tax, decreasing corporate taxes, and implementing an expensive school voucher program (which Republicans refer to as Education Freedom Accounts - EFAs). Rather than tightening spending in light of the current budgetary issues, they are being fiscally irresponsible by looking to implement universal vouchers by removing ALL income restrictions, which will even provide vouchers to the wealthiest in the state!

New Hampshire has the lowest unintended pregnancies and teen pregnancy rates in the country and some of the best maternal health outcomes. The New Hampshire Family Planning Program is an essential part of the network of care that drives these positive outcomes. Let's not go backwards! A balanced budget is essential, but not on the backs of NH's most vulnerable and poorest, and not at the risk of diminished health outcomes. 

Granite Staters deserve to know that their local, quality, affordable, compassionate health care services have the proper funding to continue to provide necessary care.

Thank you to Planned Parenthood and Kent Street Coalition for talking points. 

Additional Action Needed By Tuesday:

OPPOSE HB667-FN, relative to health education and requiring the viewing of certain videos demonstrating gestational development from embryo to fetus through birth by public school students.

1. Sign into the Senate Remote Sign-In Sheet to voice your opposition.

2. Select:
   • Wednesday, April 2nd on the calendar
   • Senate Education 
   • 1:00 pm - HB667
   • I am a member of the public.
   • I am representing myself.

3. Click “I Oppose this bill”

4. Enter your personal information and hit the continue button. 

5. Review your information, click the checkbox, and submit.  
   
   Extra Step! Please email the members of the Senate Education Committee by copying and pasting the email addresses below into your email. 
   Ruth.Ward@gc.nh.gov, victoria.sullivan@gc.nh.gov, Daryl.Abbas@gc.nh.gov, Suzanne.Prentiss@gc.nh.gov, Debra.Altschiller@gc.nh.gov, ryan.meleedy@gc.nh.gov
   
   
   Talking Points for HB667:

• HB667 requires instruction under the public school health curriculum and requires public school students to watch a simulated or ultrasound video demonstrating gestational development, clearly geared toward indoctrination of young minds.

• There are no age limits on this requirement. In addition to younger students in middle and high schools, HB677 requires all public college and university students to be subjected to anti-abortion propaganda materials as a graduation requirement – which is government overreach. As part of the bill, it would also mandate the New Hampshire public universities and colleges have a process to certify that students have seen the video.

• This is not a "homegrown" bill. This legislation is part of a national push by the anti-abortion movement. Right now, across 20 states, extremist legislators have introduced 33 bills designed to force anti-abortion disinformation into our classrooms under the false label of sex education. These bills mandate medically inaccurate fetal development lessons and forced ultrasound videos, including Live Action’s discredited “Meet Baby Olivia” video, as part of required health or sex education courses.

• These bills are designed to replace comprehensive sex education with ideology, eroding science-based curricula and silencing honest, affirming conversations about identity, relationships, and health.This nationwide, coordinated effort distorts reproductive health care, reinforces abortion stigma, and blocks young people from receiving comprehensive, inclusive, and science-backed sex education. Young people deserve an accurate curriculum that equips them to make informed, healthy decisions and build the futures they want.

• The "Meet Baby Olivia” video is not medically accurate and has not been endorsed by any unbiased medical organization. The video cited in the bill was developed by the organization Live Action, which describes itself as committed to “pro-life advocacy.”  Medical experts state the video is inaccurate, including the way it depicts the range of motion of a fetus. 

• Schools should be places of learning, not venues for ideological propaganda that prioritizes politics over students’ well-being.

• This isn’t education. It’s disinformation designed to shame students, confuse science, and deny young people the tools they need to make informed decisions about their health, their bodies, and their futures.

• Sara McNeil, a former nurse, testified in the hearing on the House side, “Calling an embryo a baby and giving it a name – Baby Olivia – is totally misleading and likely to be confusing to some children."

• HB667 would represent a departure from New Hampshire’s emphasis on local control in education. It should be the responsibility, obligation, and requirement of a local school board to identify the specific curriculum for each subject area that needs to be taught within their local community, including Health Education. “This is a very prescribed curriculum, eroding local control decisions on what is best for local communities,” said Jerry Frew, the Associate Executive Director of the New Hampshire School Administrators Association.

• The bill comes with an anticipated price tag of at least $245,000 per year because it requires the Department of Education to conduct an annual audit of each school district and the state university and community college systems to verify that the graduation requirement has been met. The fiscal note states that the audit would cost the Department of Education at least $102,000, and the graduation requirement verification would cost the community college system between $10,000 and $100,000 and the university system $135,000 per year per fiscal notes. At the same time, this past Friday, NH's Republican lawmakers announced initial approval for a two-year, $50 million cut to the state university system.

NOTE: When using talking points to add written testimony, please take an extra minute or two to put your testimony into your own words rather than copying and pasting. There are many legislators that will discount written testimony if they see it is exactly the same as that received by others. Thank you!
 

You may watch House hearings live or recorded here. 
You may watch Senate hearings live or recorded here. 

Info Sourced from Hillsborough County Democratic Committee