NH hearing spotlights bill to bar doctors from denying sterilizing care based on age, family status

CONCORD, N.H. — Lawmakers in a Senate Health and Human Services hearing heard extensive testimony on House Bill 606 Tuesday, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Rep. Ellen Reed that would bar physicians from denying medically appropriate sterilizing procedures to adults on the basis of age, number of children, marital status or future fertility goals. Supporters said the change would protect adults seeking hysterectomies, oophorectomies and other definitive reproductive treatments; opponents, including the New Hampshire Medical Society, raised implementation and federal-limit concerns.

The bill’s sponsor, Representative Ellen Reed (Rockingham 10), told the committee she sought the measure after hearing decades of testimony from patients who were repeatedly denied sterilizing care. Reed said many women were told “you don’t know what you want” and left with years of pain. Reed described her own case and said the bill is “really a medical freedom issue.” She and other backers also said the measure is narrowly written to preserve…