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Yesterday, Republican candidate for governor Kelly Ayotte was joined by anti-choice extremist and current U.S Senator Tom Cotton at a campaign event in Londonderry. While Cotton’s home state of Arkansas is over a thousand miles away, he and Ayotte share a common objective in their repeated efforts to roll back reproductive rights.
Similar to Ayotte, Cotton vehemently opposed Roe v. Wade and helped lead the push for it to be overturned. Cotton called the Dobbs decision a “great victory” and derided Roe, which nearly 2-in-3 Granite Staters opposed overturning, as a “tragic mistake.” His continued attempts to restrict reproductive healthcare has earned him an A+ rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, an organization wholly dedicated to repealing reproductive rights and supporting and promoting anti-choice politicians.
Meanwhile, Kelly Ayotte has her own extensive and disastrous record of opposing reproductive freedoms:
In 2014, she led a group of Republican senators in calling for a national abortion ban.
On multiple occasions, Ayotte voted to defund Planned Parenthood, the largest reproductive healthcare provider in New England, which over 12,000 Granite Staters depend on for critical health services.
She co-sponsored the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which would make it harder and more expensive for Granite Staters to access birth control.
Ayotte also voted in favor of the Blunt amendment, which analysts say would have not only allowed insurers and employers to deny coverage for IVF and birth control, but other critical healthcare services like blood transfusions, vaccines and more.
Ayotte served as “sherpa” for then-Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, shepherding him through the appointment process and paving the way for the eventual overturning of Roe v. Wade. Gorsuch signed off on the 98-page Dobbs draft opinion in just 10 minutes.
Gorsuch has since supported other extreme anti-choice opinions, including by signing onto a recent opinion in Moyle v. United States which claimed that women in dire medical situations should not be able to “demand an abortion.”
“While Kelly Ayotte tries to whitewash her repeated assaults on reproductive freedoms, she invites like-minded anti-choice extremists who she worked with in Washington D.C. to come to the Granite State to campaign on her behalf,” said NHDP Chairman Ray Buckley. “This is just the latest example of her actions not matching her words. You are judged by the company you keep, and Granite Staters will remember that Ayotte spent her campaign cozying up to anti-choice extremists when they see her name on the ballot later this year.”