Around New England

Pro-Life Republicans Taunt Pro-Abortion Democrats Over Anti-Death Penalty Stand

February 21, 2019

A New Hampshire legislative committee has voted to recommend a bill that would repeal the state’s death penalty, but not before Republicans got some digs in against Democrats who oppose the death penalty but support legal abortion.

“What bothers me is a lot of people who are for repeal of the death penalty are pro-abortion advocates. I don’t understand how they can be pro-abortion and vote against the death penalty,” said state Representative Dave Testerman, a Republican, according to The Union Leader.

State Representative Dave Welch, a Republican, said he’s “consistently pro-life,” voting against both abortion and the death penalty.

But another Republican, state Representative Dennis Green, argued that while it doesn’t make sense to be anti-death penalty and pro-abortion, it may make sense to be anti-abortion and pro-death penalty.

“Children being born are innocent” while murderers are “no different than a rattle snake,” Green said, according to The Union Leader.

State Representative David Meuse, a Democrat, said he opposes the death penalty because “It’s about revenge …,” according to The Union Leader.

The Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee of the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted 11-6 on Wednesday, February 20 to recommend House Bill 455 to the full House, which is scheduled to take it up as early as late February, according to The Union Leader.

Democrats control both the House and Senate in New Hampshire, although the death penalty doesn’t break down evenly along party lines. If both chambers pass the bill, Governor Chris Sununu, a Republican who supports both the death penalty and legal abortion, says he will veto it.