New Hampshire Born-Alive Infant Protection Act (HB 1627)

HB 1627 would prohibit a person from depriving an infant of nourishment with the intent to cause or alter the death of an infant during an abortion. It further states that a person shall not deprive an infant of medically appropriate and reasonable medical care and treatment or surgical care.

The bill requires a physician performing an abortion to take all medically appropriate and reasonable steps to preserve the life and health of a born-alive infant.

The bill states that any born-alive infant including one born in the course of an abortion procedure shall be treated as a legal person under the laws of New Hampshire, with the same rights to medically appropriate and reasonable care and treatment, and birth and death.

The bill further provides that “if, before the abortion, the mother and if married, her husband stated in writing that they do not wish to keep the infant in the event that the abortion results in a live birth, and this writing is not retracted before the abortion, the infant, if born alive, shall immediately upon birth become a ward of the department.”

Any physician, nurse, or other health care provider who intentionally, knowingly, or negligently fails to provide medically appropriate and reasonable care and treatment to a born-alive infant in the course of an abortion would be guilty of a class B felony. They may also face civil and professional disciplinary action.

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