Fact-checking Joyce Craig’s claims about Kelly Ayotte, abortion in New Hampshire gubernatorial race

In the New Hampshire gubernatorial race, one of Democratic candidate Joyce Craig’s main lines of attack against her Republican opponent, Kelly Ayotte, has been aborted.

During a Sept. 15 question-and-answer session with WMUR-TV, Craig, a former mayor of Manchester, said Ayotte “voted for the national abortion ban, voted to defund Planned Parenthood and guided to Neil Gorsuch through the Supreme Court, and then it was held when Roe v. Wade was overturned.”

PolitiFact and WMUR-TV partner to fact-check claims in the 2024 New Hampshire gubernatorial race.

Several of Craig’s statements are true, but some need context.

Ayotte voted for bills to restrict abortion, but calling them “bans” is an exaggeration.

Craig’s campaign pointed to several of Ayotte’s votes when she was a U.S. senator:

• In a largely partisan vote in 2013, Ayotte voted with most Republicans to attach an amendment to a budget bill that included the nonbinding “sense of the Senate” that the Notification Act should be enacted. interstate child abortion. That vote failed. The bill would have prohibited transporting a minor across state lines to obtain an abortion if the home state had a parental notification law, unless deemed necessary to save the minor’s life. In addition, the bill would have fined and/or imprisoned up to one year a doctor who performed or induced an abortion on a minor out of state without the parents being notified under state law.

• Also in 2013, Ayotte was an original co-sponsor, along with a large majority of Republican senators, of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. This legislation would have banned abortion after 20 weeks with exceptions for the life of the pregnant woman, the physical (but not mental) health of the pregnant woman, or in cases of rape or incest. Abortion providers who violate this law face a fine or up to five years in prison. Ayotte joined 32 other senators in writing a letter that said “it’s time for us in Congress to act to pull America off the fringes and closer to international standards on late-term abortions.” The bill did not pass for a vote in the chamber.

• In 2015, Ayotte voted in favor of a new version of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, with similar provisions. Once again, the vote failed, mostly along party lines, with Democrats in the majority.

Ayotte’s vote on the Interstate Child Abortion Notification Act does not support the claim that she voted for a national abortion ban. First, it focused on state-by-state reporting rules; second, the vote was on a non-binding statement of support.

The other two votes Ayotte cast came closer to Craig’s campaign description, but calling the bill a “ban” is imprecise.

As we have reported, an abortion “ban” is not a medical term; people across the political spectrum on abortion tend to define it differently, and the strong term leaves room for political spin. Political discourse experts have told PolitiFact that the term “ban” is now used as shorthand for almost all abortion bans.

The kinds of laws being proposed today are stricter than those Ayotte supported more than a decade ago, with shorter windows to allow abortion and fewer, if any, exceptions. Forty-one states now ban abortion at various points in pregnancy: 14 impose total bans, three impose six-week bans, and others restrict abortion before fetal viability.

More than 90 percent of abortions today occur in the first trimester, and about 99 percent occur before 21 weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So the bill Ayotte supported in 2013 and 2015, if enacted today, would have allowed all but a small percentage of abortions to take place.

Ayotte has voted to defund Planned Parenthood

That issue arose in 2016, when Ayotte was running for incumbent senator against Democratic challenger Maggie Hassan. During that campaign, PolitiFact rated the statement that Ayotte “voted to defund Planned Parenthood” six times as mostly true.

Some of these votes were procedural; others were nouns. Two were in 2011; four took place in 2015.

Meanwhile, in September 2015, Ayotte voted not to move forward with a temporary government spending bill that sought to block federal funds for Planned Parenthood. Ayotte said at the time that she supported defunding Planned Parenthood, but did not want to shut down the government to do so.

Ayotte was a Senate “sherpa” for Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination

This is correct. Ayotte headed the Trump administration team helping Gorsuch win court confirmation. This position, often called a “sherpa,” is often handled by a former senator who has ties to many of the senators who will vote on the nomination. Earlier this year, Ayotte said she was “proud” of that work.

Gorsuch was one of three Trump Supreme Court nominees who were instrumental in overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Ayotte has said he supports the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade

Ayotte has generally applauded the Supreme Court for sending abortion law to the states.

“The Supreme Court took this issue back to the states, and I think the states are where they should be,” Ayotte told New Hampshire Public Radio in August.

Ayotte also said during a WMUR debate in September, “I’ve always thought this should be an issue left up to the states, and that’s exactly what the Supreme Court did.”

Ayotte has consistently said that, as governor, she would not seek to change New Hampshire’s law, which allows abortion for any reason up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, and then if the pregnant woman’s life is in danger or cases of death fetal anomalies.

Our verdict

Craig said Ayotte “has voted for national abortion bans, voted to defund Planned Parenthood and guided Neil Gorsuch through the Supreme Court process, then celebrated when Roe v. Wade was annulled”.

Ayotte has voted multiple times to defund Planned Parenthood and was the “sherpa” for Gorsuch’s Senate confirmation. Ayotte also applauded the Supreme Court’s decision to hand over abortion law responsibility to the states.

But it is misleading to say that Ayotte voted for a national abortion ban. On two occasions, Ayotte voted in favor of a bill to end abortions after 20 weeks, with exceptions after that for life, physical health, rape and incest. This bill, if enacted today, would have allowed all but a small percentage of abortions to occur.

Craig’s statement is partially accurate, but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. We rate it half true.