Fact-checking Joyce Craig’s claims on Kelly Ayotte, abortion in New Hampshire’s gubernatorial race

In New Hampshire’s competitive gubernatorial race, one of Democratic nominee Joyce Craig’s main lines of attack against her Republican opponent, Kelly Ayotte, has been on abortion.

During a Sep. 15 question-and-answer session with WMUR-TV, Craig, a former Manchester mayor, said Ayotte "has voted for national abortion bans, she has voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and she shepherded Neil Gorsuch through the Supreme Court process, and then celebrated when Roe v. Wade was overturned."

PolitiFact and WMUR-TV are partnering to fact-check claims in the 2024 New Hampshire gubernatorial race.

Several of Craig’s assertions are accurate, but some need context.

The Craig campaign pointed to several votes by Ayotte when she was a U.S. senator:

• In a mostly party-line vote, in 2013, Ayotte voted with most Republicans to attach an amendment to a budget bill that would include the nonbinding "sense of the Senate" that the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act should be enacted. That vote failed. The bill would have prohibited transporting a minor across state lines to obtain an abortion if the home state had a parental notification law, unless it was deemed necessary to save the minor’s life. Also, the bill would have fined and/or imprisoned for up to one year a physician who performed or induced an abortion on an out-of-state minor without parents being notified according to state law.

• Also in 2013, Ayotte was an original co-sponsor, along with a large majority of Republican senators, of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. This legislation would have banned abortion after 20 weeks with exceptions for the pregnant woman’s life, the pregnant woman’s physical (but not mental) health or in cases of rape or incest. Abortion providers who violated this law would face a fine or up to five years in prison. Ayotte joined 32 other senators in writing a letter that said it "is time that we in Congress act to bring the United States out of the fringe and closer to international norms on late abortions." The bill did not come to a vote in the chamber.

• In 2015, Ayotte voted for a new version of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, with similar provisions. Again, the vote failed, mostly along party lines, with Democrats in the majority.  

Ayotte’s vote on the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act doesn’t support the assertion that she voted for a national abortion ban. First, it focused on state-by-state notification rules; second, the vote was on a nonbinding statement of support.

The other two votes Ayotte cast came closer to the Craig campaign’s description, but calling the bill a "ban" is imprecise.

As we’ve reported, an abortion "ban" is not a medical term; people across the political spectrum on abortion tend to define it differently and the blunt term leaves room for political spin. Political discourse experts have told PolitiFact the term "ban" is now used as shorthand for nearly all abortion prohibitions. 

The types of laws being proposed today are more stringent than the one Ayotte supported more than a decade ago, with shorter windows for allowing abortions and fewer, if any, exceptions. Forty-one states now ban abortion at different points in pregnancy — 14 enforce total bans, three enforce six-week bans and others restrict abortion before fetal viability.

More than 90% of abortions today occur in the first trimester, and about 99% occur before 21 weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So, the bill Ayotte supported in 2013 and 2015, if enacted today, would have allowed all but a small percentage of abortions to proceed.

This issue arose in 2016, when Ayotte was running as an incumbent senator against Democratic challenger Maggie Hassan. During that campaign, PolitiFact rated the statement that Ayotte "has voted to defund Planned Parenthood" six times Mostly True.

Some of these votes were procedural; others were substantive. Two were in 2011; four took place in 2015. 

Meanwhile, in September 2015, Ayotte voted not to move forward with a temporary government spending bill that sought to block federal funds for Planned Parenthood. Ayotte said then she supported defunding Planned Parenthood, but didn’t want to shut the government down to do it.

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This is correct. Ayotte headed the Trump administration’s team helping Gorsuch win confirmation to the court. This position, often called a "sherpa," is often handled by a former senator who has ties to many of the senators who will be voting on the nomination. Earlier this year, Ayotte said she was "proud" of that work. 

Gorsuch was one of three Trump Supreme Court nominations who were integral in the Roe v. Wade’s overturning in 2022.

Ayotte has generally applauded the Supreme Court for sending abortion law back to the states.

"The Supreme Court turned this issue back to the states, and I believe that the states are where they should be," Ayotte told New Hampshire Public Radio in August.

Ayotte also said during a WMUR debate in September, "I have always thought that this should be an issue left to the states, and that is exactly what the Supreme Court did."

Ayotte has consistently said that, as governor, she would not seek to change New Hampshire’s law, which permits an abortion for any reason up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, and after that if the the pregnant woman’s life is in danger or in cases of fatal fetal anomalies.

Craig said Ayotte "has voted for national abortion bans, she has voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and she shepherded Neil Gorsuch through the Supreme Court process, and then celebrated when Roe v. Wade was overturned."

Ayotte has voted on multiple occasions to defund Planned Parenthood and she was the "sherpa" for Gorsuch’s confirmation in the Senate. Ayotte has also applauded the Supreme Court’s decision to hand responsibility for abortion law to the states.

But it’s misleading to say that Ayotte voted for a national abortion ban. Twice, Ayotte voted for a bill to end abortions after 20 weeks, with exceptions after that for life, physical health, rape and incest. This bill, if enacted today, would have allowed all but a tiny percentage of abortions to proceed.

Craig’s statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. We rate it Half True.