This NH woman believes Ayotte will strip women of basic healthcare if elected governor

 Morgan Wilson was almost 23 when she first stepped through the doors of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Keene.

“I first went to Planned Parenthood actually when I had two positive pregnancy tests the year after I graduated undergraduate school,” the now 30-year-old Penacook resident said. “I was always aware of Planned Parenthood, but that was my first time receiving care from them.”

Wilson, who was working in a temporary position as a fellow at her college at the time and making minimum wage, knew her circumstances wouldn’t have allowed her to financially and emotionally support a child. 

“For me, it wasn’t really a question,” she said. “Once I knew I was pregnant, I knew I was going to get an abortion.”

Getting a safe—and legal—abortion felt like a huge weight off her chest, Wilson shared.

Now a volunteer for Planned Parenthood, Wilson is worried that other young women in her hometown are losing access to affordable and safe reproductive health care. She is encouraging voters to consider how much is at stake for young Granite Staters like her on Nov. 5, and to vote to protect reproductive freedom in the state.

Over the last three years New Hampshire’s Republican-controlled Executive Council has voted five times to defund organizations that offer family planning services, including local Planned Parenthood clinics. In the last three years, over 11,000 patients have received care in the state’s Planned Parenthood clinics; a majority of Planned Parenthood’s patients are low-income. That means that the organization’s financial deficit largely impacts people of color, uninsured, and underinsured people in the state. 

“When I hear about Planned Parenthood being defunded, I think about all aspects of what Planned Parenthood offers in terms of health services and all the things that will be lost even beyond abortion,” Wilson said, highlighting how many women in the state rely on Planned Parenthood for preventive healthcare such as getting birth control, cancer and STI screenings “…especially in rural areas, and especially [for]  people who can’t afford other kinds of healthcare.” 

Abortion rights threatened under Kelly Ayotte 

One race on the New Hampshire ballot this year that will play a big part in the future of abortion care in the state is that between Republican Kelly Ayotte and Democrat Joyce Craig for governor. 

Despite Ayotte’s political ads claiming she won’t curtail abortion rights for Granite Staters, her track record at the federal level is rife with anti-abortion policy decisions. 

“When she was a US Senator, she voted for a nationwide abortion ban with no exceptions,” said Kayla Montgomery, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Votes. “She voted repeatedly to defund Planned Parenthood, basically every chance she got as a US senator.”

Ayotte was also instrumental in shepherding Neil Gorsuch to the US Supreme Court. Gorsuch’s lifetime appointment soon led to the overturning of Roe V. Wade. 

Ayotte is also backed by extreme anti-abortion lawmakers in the state. One of the first endorsers of Ayotte’s gubernatorial campaign was Republican state Sen. Carrie Gendreau, one of the sponsors on the near total abortion law introduced in the legislature this year. 

Every election, abortion rights are up for debate, Montgomery said, because New Hampshire is the only state in New England that hasn’t codified the right to abortion in its constitution. 

“It is really important that when it comes to politicians that we trust, we look at what they do and not what they say,” said Montgomery. “[Ayotte] has said that if she is elected governor, she won’t even bring contracts before the executive council. So Planned Parenthood would remain defunded.”

Wilson describes the care she received at the Planned Parenthood clinic as one of the most “validating” healthcare experiences she’d ever had: Practitioners and volunteers at the organization not only provided her with emotional support, she said, but also walked her through what to expect during the process, which helped her make an informed decision. 

“They kind of sat me down, talked me through everything, every step of it, what they were

going to do,” she said.  “I had a medication abortion. So they talked me through the medication I was going to be taking, and what I should expect when I returned home for the evening.”

Ayotte cannot be trusted on her abortion record, Wilson said. She claims she’ll keep New Hampshire on the same track as Gov. Chris Sununu, who signed the first abortion ban in the state’s recent history. 

“I want to see someone [in the governor’s office] who passionately and enthusiastically endorses abortion access and endorses reproductive rights,” she said.