Thursday, May 31, 2012

Decisions: Lynch & Bass

The fetal homicide and partial-birth abortion bills would not die, despite grueling journeys through the New Hampshire House & Senate. Look up the dockets for these bills on the state web site sometime. A number of tales are hidden behind those dry factual entries.

And so, at long last, Governor Lynch will get these bills. I am telling every pro-life person I know to get those calls and emails going. The number is 271-2121, where I'm sure a very polite individual is waiting to take our calls. Lynch's pleasant and understated persona is not enough to make me forget that he vetoed parental notification (and overriding that veto was one of the proudest moments for the legislative class of '10). He has not made direct veto threats on either fetal homicide or partial birth, but on the latter, it's a real stretch for me to believe he'll support it.

As for fetal homicide, if Lynch can't be persuaded by the state Supreme court's Lamy case, he just can't be persuaded.

The success of these bills so far is great news, and it shows what can be done with legislators who can think straight. As for the governor, we live in hope. What will he do?

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In Congress today, a bill called PRENDA came up for a vote, and fell short of the two-thirds that it needed. PRENDA stands for Pregnancy Nondiscrimination Act, and it was written to ban sex-selection abortions. PP hates the bill, and the president has weighed in against it as well. When the dust settled this afternoon, only seven Republicans had voted against the bill. One was Charlie Bass, New Hampshire's own Congressman from the Second District.

Bass is avowedly pro-choice, and has been for as long as I can remember. I used to testify in front of his committee when he was a state senator. But refusing to frown on sex selection? Really? Worldwide, most of the preborn children killed for being the "wrong" sex are girls. There's a war on women for you.

This won't help him in November, of course, since Ann Kuster will get the pro-Roe vote. Kuster's mother, the late Susan McLane, served with Bass in the state senate years ago. McLane and Bass were both "pro-choice" Republicans. It is some kind of rough justice that pits McLane's daughter against Bass now.