Previous Action Alerts can be found here

This week's highlighted bills:

  • SUPPORT HCR7, recognizing abortion as a critical component of comprehensive reproductive health care. 

  • SUPPORT HB352-FN,  prohibiting possession of a firearm at a polling place.

Tips on Contacting Your Representatives: This week, State Rep. Rosemarie Rung (D-Merrimack) shared these useful insights with her own constituents on making your outreach efforts more effective: 

  • Don't use on-line forms from special interest groups. These are carbon copies of each other. When sent to legislative email, they can be marked "BULK" or they get quarantined by the system. Best you send your own email to your legislators and have a reference to being a constituent in the subject line.

  • Keep your emails as concise as possible and specify what you want your legislator to do ("Vote against house bill 123") and why, especially stating how this policy has or will impact you directly.

Protect Abortion Access

SUPPORT HCR7, recognizing abortion as a critical component of comprehensive reproductive health care. 

TAKE ACTION BY WEDNESDAY

  1. Sign into the House Remote Testimony tool to voice your opposition.

  2. Enter your personal information.

  3. Select:

    • Wednesday, February 19th on the calendar

    • House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs

    • 1:00 pm - HCR7

    • I am a member of the public.

    • I am representing myself.

  4. Click: "I support this bill", then hit the submit button at the bottom of the form. Adding remote testimony is suggested. It will help make your case. 

NOTE: When using talking points in adding 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! 

Talking Points for HCR7:

  • Explanation: What is a HCR? HCR7 is a House Concurrent Resolution without the force of law like a bill. A House Concurrent Resolution must pass both the House and Senate and states an opinion of the entire Legislature.

  • Abortion is a critical component of comprehensive reproductive health care, and access to abortion allows people to make decisions about their families, their lives, and their futures.

  • President Trump has stated that the regulation of abortion should be left to the states. New Hampshire is the only state in New England without any explicit protections for abortion access in our state law or Constitution. New Hampshire needs to take decisive action to affirm that abortion is a critical part of reproductive health care and a human right for all Granite Staters. Passage of this HCR confirms that an individual's right to terminate their own pregnancy, prior to 24 weeks gestation, shall not be denied or infringed upon in this state.

  • That includes being able to get the care we need without worrying about threats to our health, freedom, or well-being.

  • HCR7 affirms the position that New Hampshire will not further restrict abortion - what many current lawmakers promised on the campaign trail. HCR7 puts their words into action. Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte promised to veto any legislation seeking to tighten the state’s abortion limits, which were put in place in 2021. “If you send me legislation that further restricts access to abortion beyond our current law, I will veto it,” she said during her inaugural address in January. Additionally, House and Senate Republican leaders also promised not to pass further abortion restrictions on the campaign trail.

  • Instead of relying on a representative body to make such personal decisions, in keeping with New Hampshire’s commitment to limited government, the New Hampshire Legislature should let the people decide their own future.

Guns Don't Belong in Polling Places

SUPPORT HB352-FN,  prohibiting possession of a firearm at a polling place.

TAKE ACTION BY WEDNESDAY

Please contact your State Representatives and ask them to support and pass HB352. You may look up contact information for your Reps here.

  • Tell your State Representatives that you are a constituent and you consider voting records at election time. 

  • Your email subject line should include reference to being a constituent. Example: Constituent Request: Vote to Support HB352

  • Short emails are more effective. State your request and just a few talking points, put into your own words, or a personal story. 

From Rep. David Meuse (D-Portsmouth) for the Minority of Criminal Justice and Public Safety:Voter intimidation, including intimidation by armed civilians, has long been a tool that some have used to prevent full participation in US democracy. This bill is a proactive attempt to make our elections safer for voters, election workers, and law enforcement officers. Under our current law, state and local authorities can’t prevent people from bringing guns into polling places, even school buildings. This bill would correct this by prohibiting the carrying of a deadly weapon, out in the open or concealed, within 100 feet of a polling place on the days where federal, state, and/or municipal elections are taking place. 21 states and the District of Columbia already explicitly prohibit guns at polling places in some way. It is past time for New Hampshire to join them.