NH moms with children via IVF watch governor's race. Ayotte's record raises concerns.

HOPKINTON — Finding herself single at 37, Lindsay Hanson said she realized it was “now or never” to decide if she wanted kids.

She did. So Hanson turned to IVF, and had a baby girl through the help of a donor.

That was five years ago. Now, after the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that put IVF in jeopardy in that state, the Hopkinton, New Hampshire, resident fears IVF restrictions could spread beyond Alabama. She worries it could affect women like herself and the LGBTQ community facing "such extreme challenges and opposition" when they’re trying to start or complete their families — especially with a new governor about to be elected in New Hampshire.

Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, one of the leading candidates for governor, voiced her support for IVF after the Alabama ruling. But during her time in the Senate, she consistently supported measures that would have limited access to IVF.

The Alabama ruling put a spotlight on the battle over abortion laws, raising questions such as whether donors are legally allowed to destroy their embryo or what rights exactly an embryo has, according to a USA TODAY report.

Ayotte says she supports IVF, but her record says otherwise

On Feb. 16, major IVF providers in Alabama paused services after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, leaving many families in limbo and inciting backlash across the country.

On Feb. 29, the Alabama House and Senate each passed bills to protect IVF treatments. The bills would provide immunity to providers with the aim of reopening IVF clinics as soon as possible.

There have been no threats to IVF in New Hampshire yet, and Republican Gov. Chris Sununu has voiced his support for IVF.

“It sounds to me like obviously that judge overstepped his bounds in terms of using those arguments to make his case,” said Sununu in an interview on CNN. “I don’t think that would fly in a place like New Hampshire and in most states.”

But, “he’s only gonna be governor for a little while longer,” said Ann Goodrich-Bazan, who lives in Winchester. Sununu is not running for reelection this year, and a battle between the two main Democratic and Republican candidates has already begun.

Goodrich-Bazan had a boy and a girl with the help of IVF. Just under 35 at the time they started, she and her husband had to save a lot of money to afford the procedure to make the family they wanted.

Now, she along with Hanson and others are worried about his successor.

It's early, but a UMass Lowell poll from Jan. 16 found Ayotte leading her Republican opponent, former New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse, 54% to 22% in the primary race. An Emerson College poll from November showed her leading in hypothetical matchups against the two Democratic candidates as well.

A campaign spokesperson for Ayotte said that she “disagrees with the Alabama ruling and fully supports protecting access to IVF.”

“She personally has seen friends start and grow healthy families using IVF and knows that it is important to protect IVF for New Hampshire families,” said spokesperson John Corbett. “Kelly has made it clear that she will continue to fight for increased funding for women’s healthcare, protect Granite State families’ access to IVF, and support New Hampshire’s current law which protects women’s freedom to obtain an abortion for any reason up to six months of pregnancy.”

But Ayotte's record in the U.S. Senate is different than her current stated view. In 2011, she co-sponsored the Protect Life Act, which would've restricted the universal access to IVF under the Affordable Care Act by allowing health care providers to refuse to provide any health care service to which they object.

In 2012, she co-sponsored Sen. Roy Blunt's Blunt's amendment, which would've allowed employers to refuse to cover health services like IVF and contraceptives through religious exemption.

Both bills ultimately failed.

Morse also expressed his support for IVF.

“Myself and a majority of N.H. citizens support the IVF process because it’s a valuable method for families to have children when other opportunities aren’t feasible,” Morse told Seacoastonline. “As governor, I can promise I won't take that opportunity away."

But unlike Ayotte, Morse's record backs up his statement. As Senate president in 2019, he co-sponsored SB 279, which required "insurers issuing or renewing group health insurance policies to cover fertility treatment." The bill, which addressed access to fertility care, specifically mentioned IVF as a "cost effective treatment option."

Both Ayotte and Morse have long taken pro-life stands.

“She has a long anti-abortion record, dating back to her time as U.S. senator,” said UNH associate professor of political science Dante Scala of Ayotte. “She could say now, I support the New Hampshire law as it is. But she's taken a stance that’s been much more conservative than that.”

Indeed, Ayotte said that she supports New Hampshire’s law that prohibits abortions after 24 weeks except in certain cases. But as senator, Ayotte pushed for a 20-week abortion ban in 2014. She supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and has pushed for parental notification laws in the Senate and as New Hampshire attorney general.

Morse was Senate president during the passage of New Hampshire’s 24-week abortion bill, which he supports. He also opposed efforts to add exceptions in that bill in cases of rape, incest, and fatal fetal anomalies.

“I think about IVF as being one of the most difficult things that I've gone through as an adult, super, super emotional and stressful and the stakes are so high and you add financial burdens, it just consumes you as you’re going through this process” said Goodrich-Bazan, now 51. “It's really imperative that we are voting for Democrats who understand the implication of reproductive health and reproductive rights.”

What voters need to know: Ayotte and Morse seek Republican nomination for NH governor:

The two leading Democratic candidates for governor, Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington and former Mayor of Manchester Joyce Craig, have both expressed support for IVF.

“Thousands of families across our country, and right here in New Hampshire, rely on IVF to start their families. Extreme Republican attacks on IVF are an attack on parents and families, and they have absolutely no place in our state,” said Craig. "I am committed to the preservation and protection of all of our reproductive freedoms, from access to abortion to the use of assisted reproductive technology.”

Warmington issued a warning about the Republican candidates.

“Extreme Republicans were never going to stop at abortion,” Warmington said. “New Hampshire is the only state in New England without protections for reproductive rights. We’ve already seen a radical 15-day abortion ban introduced here and if there's an extreme Republican in the corner office, we could be the next state to see the right to start a family using IVF taken away.”

What voters need to know: Craig and Warmington seek Democratic nomination for governor

Hanson doesn’t think New Hampshire residents can write off the possibility of an Alabama situation happening here.

“I don't know that if you ask people in Alabama, before this happened if they thought that this kind of decision was imminent, either. And I think they would probably say, 'No,'" said Hanson. "I don't think we see a lot of things coming."

IVF and abortion could be big factors in November elections

Scala thinks abortion, now closely tied to IVF, will be a big motivator in the New Hampshire governor’s race in November, just like it was in the midterms in 2022. And reproductive rights are expected to be a major factor in the presidential election, too.

Elizabeth Carr, the first baby born through IVF, was invited to the 2024 State of the Union, where restoring abortion rights was a central part of President Joe Biden's speech. And according to a March 7 KFF poll, 12% of voters say abortion is the most important issue for their vote, including over a quarter of Black women. About half said it is a very important issue.

“I think that the worst possible thing that could happen is another Trump presidency and giving him another opportunity to put in these extremist judges who are going to take more rights away from women and families,” said Hanson.

After the Alabama ruling, Trump said he supports IVF, and told the Alabama legislature to “act quickly to find an immediate solution” to preserve the procedure on his social media platform Truth Social.

But many see the Alabama ruling as a direct consequence of the fall of Roe v. Wade, a decision made by justices who Trump has boasted about appointing. And Trump has close ties to many who oppose IVF, including Tom Parker, the Alabama Supreme Court chief justice who wrote the IVF ruling, who he hosted in 2016 on the campaign trail and in 2018 at the White House.

“No amount of Truth Social posts can cover up the fact that these attacks on IVF are only possible because Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade,” said Marisa Nahem, the New Hampshire spokesperson for the Biden-Harris campaign. “Trump is directly responsible for these cruel attacks on reproductive rights that are threatening Granite Staters’ fundamental freedoms and their ability to start a family.”

Hanson said she’s noticed that a lot of her “friends” on social meda who are registered Republicans have come out with their own IVF story and how they wouldn't have their family if what happened in Alabama had happened to them.

“My hope is that in November, they see that connection,” said Hanson. "They're able to see that their family would not exist."

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: NH moms with children via IVF concerned about Ayotte's record