Catholic Citizenship News

Update on HB 254 (Physician-Assisted Suicide)

Thursday, by a vote of 183-182, the House of Representatives voted to table HB 254. Since there can be no vote to pass a bill while the bill is on the table, this is a victory for the opponents of physician-assisted suicide.

It is still possible that when the House convenes this Wednesday and Thursday (March 26 and 27) there will be a motion made to remove the bill from the table and proceed to a vote. We are asking legislators to simply keep HB 254 on the table. In the unlikely event that HB 254 does get removed from the table, we will continue to urge legislators to vote to kill the bill.

Thank you to everyone who contacted legislators over the past several weeks. As you can tell from the margin of the House vote here, each conversation with a legislator can be an indispensable part of the campaign to prevent the legalization of assisted suicide in New Hampshire. We especially commend the 30 high school students from Mount Royal Academy and Holy Family Academy who went to the State House to pass out flyers and lend their help to this anti-suicide effort. Their presence and their concerns were powerful signs of the danger that a bill like this represents.

If you have not yet contacted your legislators, please do so right away, and respectfully ask them to STOP HB 254.

House contact info: www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members

Thank you for your continuing efforts to advance human dignity and the common good.

CCN Archive

Alert! House to Vote on Assisted Suicide Bill on March 20 (HB 254)

The Diocese of Manchester continues to work alongside a broad and diverse coalition that includes people with disabilities, veterans, young people, hospitals, and nursing homes to try to stop this perilous threat to some of our most vulnerable sisters and brothers. The full House is now scheduled to vote on this bill on March 20. To learn more, see our testimony on last year’s bill and a Parable Magazine column about the defeat of that bill.

What can you do?

• As soon as possible, call or send letters to your own House members to ask them to vote against this bill. You can find out who your own Representatives are by going to this link:
  
  The New Hampshire House of Representatives
• Spread the word and get others to do the same!

DOWNLOAD a flyer on HB 254

HB 1633 Update: Marijuana Legalization Defeated!

On June 13th, the New Hampshire House voted not to move forward with the agreement reached between House and Senate members of the committee of conference on HB 1633, the bill to legalize recreational marijuana in New Hampshire. The committee of conference had been meeting to iron out differences between the versions of HB 1633 passed by the House and Senate respectively. This means that HB 1633 is dead.

Deepest thanks to all who contacted legislators to register opposition to HB 1633 at any point throughout this legislative session. We should be truly grateful that New Hampshire will not be going down this road, a road that is so harmful to the common good.

January 17, 2024 – The Diocese of Manchester submitted written and oral testimony to register opposition to HB 1633, which would legalize marijuana.  

HB 1283 Update: Assisted Suicide Legalization Defeated!

On May 16, the Senate voted down HB 1283 by a bipartisan vote of 17-7. As you know, the debate around this bill was an arduous one. The outreach to legislators that was done by many opponents of physician-assisted suicide played a critical role in achieving this outcome. Thank you!

Here is a list of the Senators who voted against HB 1283:

Daryl Abbas, R-Salem
Kevin Avard, R-Nashua
Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro
Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead
Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry
Shannon Chandley, D-Amherst
Lou D'Allesandro, D-Manchester
Bill Gannon, R-Sandown
Carrie Gendreau, R-Littleton
James Gray, R-Rochester
Daniel Innis, R-Bradford
Timothy Lang, R-Sanbornton
Howard Pearl, R-Loudon
Denise Ricciardi, R-Bedford
Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua
Donna Soucy, D-Manchester
Ruth Ward, R-Stoddard

Please contact them to let them know how much you appreciate their vote on this. It is especially important to do that if you contacted them in advance of the vote.

Please stay tuned to this website for ongoing news on the work being done in the public square by the Catholic Church in New Hampshire.

In order to defeat assisted suicide legislation, the Diocese is working alongside the NH Coalition for Suicide Prevention, a diverse group that includes health care providers, veterans, and people with disabilities and their advocates. The Church teaches that suicide is always a tragedy and that a caring community should respond with hospice and palliative care to better meet the needs of those facing the end of life.

Testimony Against CACR 24

January 4, 2024 – The Diocese of Manchester submitted written and oral testimony against CACR 24, a proposed New Hampshire State Constitutional Amendment that would make abortion a constitutional right.