THE ABORTION BAN. New Hampshire Primary Source was first to report last week that Amplify New Hampshire, a progressive issues advocacy group launched in June, was beginning a more than $1 million television ad buy citing Gov. Chris Sununu on the abortion ban he signed into law in June as part of the 2022-2023 state budget trailer bill. According to Federal Communications Commission public documents, Amplify New Hampshire has so far contracted to spend $822,000 on WMUR-TV alone. Subtracting agency commissions, the expenditure on the station is just less than $699,000.While the ad doesn’t mention that Sununu is considering running for the U.S. Senate, the message is clearly directed at rallying pro-choice Granite Staters against him in the increasingly likely event that he does.View the ad here.The broad chargeThe ad’s female narrator, briefly and in a subdued, matter-of-fact manner, levels no direct personal criticism of Sununu. The ad says it contains “just facts.”The ad makes charges that Sununu “just signed one of the most restrictive abortion bans in New Hampshire history.” Regardless of what side of the issue you are on, this statement is factual. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends on your point of view.New Hampshire law prior to the passage of House Bill 2 had no gestational limit on abortion, confirmed Kayla Montgomery, vice president of public affairs at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. She said this was because “New Hampshire has long held the tradition of privacy, particularly when it comes to personal medical decisions.”Montgomery said, “This abortion restriction that just passed in House Bill 2 is the first restriction in modern New Hampshire history."Montgomery noted that New Hampshire had restrictions on the books from the pre-Roe v. Wade era, but she said that after the Roe decision, they were not enforced. Those laws were repealed by the New Hampshire Legislature and then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen in 1997.According to the nonpartisan nonprofit Guttmacher Institute, 43 states prohibit abortions after “a specified point in the pregnancy.” Among them, the institute says, 21 states ban abortion at between 13 and 24 weeks, including 16 states that ban abortion at 20 weeks and four states that currently ban abortion at 24 weeks.ExceptionsThe four states that ban abortions at 24 weeks are Florida, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. But according to Guttmacher, these four states have exceptions for the life and “general health” of the mother and, in Massachusetts, for “lethal fetal anomaly” as well. Massachusetts also has exceptions in cases of rape and incest, Montgomery said.New Hampshire’s new law has none of those exceptions. The ad says the new law “requires a mother to deliver her baby, even if it can’t survive.”“And,” the ad says, “there are no exceptions for rape or incest.”That is also true. The new provision provides no exception for fetal anomalies or abnormalities and no exception for rape or incest. New Hampshire’s new law does allow for a narrow exception to the 24-week prohibition -- in cases of a “medical emergency.”The new law defines the emergency as “a condition in which an abortion is necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant woman whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, or when continuation of the pregnancy will create a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”The law defines “major bodily function” as including but not being limited to “functions of the immune system, normal cell growth, and digestive, bowel, bladder, neurological, brain, respiratory, circulatory, endocrine and reproductive functions.”Ultrasound requirementAlthough the ad does not specifically mention this, the new law requires every woman who intends to have an abortion to first receive an ultrasound to determine the “probable gestational age of the fetus.” According to the Guttmacher Institute, 27 other states now have this requirement. Planned Parenthood has alleged the New Hampshire provision’s true intent was to “shame” and intimidate women who are considering abortions. Although the law does not specify the type of ultrasound required, Montgomery, said the only effective ultrasound to determine gestational age during the first trimester, 11 to 13 weeks, is an invasive, transvaginal ultrasound.Non-invasive ultrasounds are used often after that period, she said. Montgomery the requirement is effectively another restriction. Planned Parenthood has said this is especially true for “medication abortions,” in which ultrasounds are often unnecessary.'Doctors in jail'The ad says that the law “could put doctors in jail for up to seven years.”And this is true.The laws clearly says that any health care provider “who knowingly performs or induces an abortion in violation of this subdivision and knows that the fetus has a gestational age of at least 24 weeks, or consciously disregards a substantial risk that the fetus has a gestational age of at least 24 weeks, shall be guilty of a class B felony,” which is punishable by imprisonment of one to seven years.The new statute also says that, “in addition to any other penalties the court may impose,” the provider shall be fined at least $10,000 and possibly up to $100,000.