Opinion: Reproductive Freedom: The Critical Importance of Down-Ballot Races

Days away from the election, polls indicate that the race for the presidency is virtually tied in every battleground state. We at the Kent Street Coalition believe that given the choice of voting for freedom and democracy over tyranny, the majority of voters across the nation will make the right choice and elect Kamala Harris as the next president, along with a majority Democratic Congress to help her protect our rights. But the federal government of the United States does not establish the policies of this country alone. In our system, state elected leaders play crucial roles in the laws that govern our lives, and it’s imperative that we pay careful attention to those races when we enter the voting booth.

The Supreme Court has already demonstrated that it can no longer be relied upon to protect Americans’ guarantee rights and freedoms. With the Court clearly willing to reverse historical precedent to Americans’ detriment, and with the outcome of the national election unknown, we must also look to our state governments to act as the protectors of democracy. Only those candidates for state office who have proven that they have the courage and the fortitude to stand up to Donald Trump and the rest of the MAGA Republicans deserve our votes; we must elect only those with proven records of resolutely standing on the side of what is right.

The need for courageous state officials willing to stand up for our fundamental rights is especially true when it comes to protecting the right to reproductive healthcare, whether that refers to abortion care, contraception, IVF and other fertility treatments, or life-saving medications and procedures. Women have already died as a result of the policies that Trump and MAGA politicians want to expand and nationalize, and we know from Trump’s own words and from the extensive anti-abortion recommendations in Project 2025 that he and his running mate, JD Vance, intend to use the full force of the federal government to effectively enforce a national abortion ban. We know also that the Supreme Court will not help us. In fact, the Court has twice since Dobbs let stand dangerous state laws that effectively deny emergency abortion care to pregnant patients who are in danger of losing their lives or their future fertility. We must vote knowing that our lives and the lives of those we love are more at risk than ever.

With the stakes so high, we must take an unvarnished look at NH’s Republican candidates, beginning with their candidate for governor, Kelly Ayotte. Ayotte’s decades-long record on reproductive health is consistently anti-choice; she has voted for federal abortion bans, opposed coverage for IVF, defunded Planned Parenthood, crusaded against health exceptions to bans, and more. She refused to support legislation to codify reproductive rights, even though NH is the only state in New England lacking such protection, and she supports Sununu’s abortion ban, which forces doctors to weigh the possibility of jail time while treating patients in life-threatening emergencies. We cannot trust that Ayotte would use the governor’s office or that of her Department of Justice to challenge Trump’s federal overreach in implementing Project 2025’s anti-choice agenda. And having once promised her daughter and all Granite Staters that she could and would not support Donald Trump for president, Ayotte has gone back on her word. We trust Kelly Ayotte at our own peril.

All three incumbent Republican members of the five-person Executive Council running for re-election repeatedly voted to defund Planned Parenthood family planning services and healthcare. A fourth, running for an open seat, has indicated he will do the same. (Note that state and federal law already prohibit the use of government monies for abortion care.) Further, it is critical for Granite State voters to understand that the Executive Council must approve judicial and executive branch appointments, and we need NH judges who will protect our rights.

In the NH House and Senate, the vast majority of Republicans are so extreme that they voted against amending Gov. Sununu’s abortion ban to include exceptions for incest and rape, and they also voted against removing criminal penalties for doctors providing patient care.

Many in NH and indeed, across the nation, sometimes like to “split the ticket” between Democrats and Republicans, theorizing that power-sharing between them will act as a curb on extreme behavior. While this may or may not be true in an ordinary election year, there is nothing ordinary about November 5, 2024. As this election begins, Trump’s Republicans have already taken away one right—reproductive freedom—from the people and have promised to take away so much more.

We cannot entrust our fundamental rights, our bodies, and our very lives to people who have demonstrated that they don’t trust their constituents to make their own best decisions in private consultations with their doctor. Instead, we must elect those who have shown that they, like the majority of Granite Staters, are committed to keeping abortion and other reproductive care safe and accessible. In NH this means electing Joyce Craig as governor, claiming a majority of Democratic seats on the Executive Council, and winning Democratic majorities in both the NH House and Senate. In this extraordinary year, we must elect Democrats from the bottom of the ticket right up to the top, to protect our freedoms, our Constitution and our democracy.

[For detailed information about your state senator and representative reproductive voting record, you can consult the Planned Parenthood NH Action Fund Legislative Scorecards here: https://bit.ly/4dSUN5T  and here: https://bit.ly/4f0ZsUs If you want to find out who your senator, representative or executive councilor are, along with their votes on critical reproductive rights issues, you can consult the Reproductive Equity Now Voter Guide here: https://bit.ly/4eFYPzZ]