![]() |
New Hampshire
The pre-Roe statutes prohibited performance of an abortion on a pregnant woman before quickening for any reason,1 and after quickening unless, “by reason of some malformation or of difficult or protracted labor, it shall have been necessary to preserve the life of the woman or shall have been advised by two physicians to be necessary for that purpose.”2 These statutes were repealed in 1997,3 and would not be revived by a decision overruling Roe v. Wade. Abortions could be performed for any reason at any stage of pregnancy.
1 N.H. Rev. Stat. ann. § 585.12 (1955) (a misdemeanor).
2 Id. § 585.13 (1955) (a felony).
3 1997 N.H. Laws 81, ch. 99, § 1.
© 2005
Life Legal Defense Fund. All rights reserved.
May be reprinted without permission but with attribution to Life
Legal Defense Fund.