RELEASE: Governor Hassan Discusses Women's Health and Economic Opportunity With Local Business Leaders

Press Release

Today, Governor Maggie Hassan led a roundtable discussion with local business leaders in Portsmouth, focusing on the importance of protecting a woman's right to make her own health care decisions and expanding economic opportunity for women and families.

"I will always stand up for a woman's right to make her own health care decisions and control her own destiny. When women are forced to pay more for their health care or are denied the freedom to determine when to start a family, it creates a significant economic strain," said Governor Maggie Hassan. "Unfortunately, throughout her time in Washington, Senator Kelly Ayotte has fought to block women's access to critical health services, including voting six times to defund Planned Parenthood. It is critical that women have access to the primary health care services that organizations like Planned Parenthood provide, and I will continue to fight to ensure that women can safely and affordably access health care."

"Maggie Hassan has a record of standing up for Granite State women and families, working across the aisle in New Hampshire to restore funding to Planned Parenthood and to protect our right to affordable health care," said Michelle Lozuaway, owner of Street restaurant. "Politicians in Concord and Washington need to stop playing games with women's health care, and Maggie Hassan's bipartisan problem solving is exactly the type of leadership we need in the United States Senate."

Maggie believes that it's unacceptable that politicians in Washington are still playing politics with women's health. In the Senate, she will fight to protect a woman's right to make her own health decisions and to safely and affordably access health care. That means standing up to those seeking to defund Planned Parenthood, protecting health coverage that includes contraception, supporting efforts to make reproductive health services more affordable and accessible and fighting against efforts to undermine Roe v. Wade.

Meanwhile, throughout her entire time in Washington, Senator Kelly Ayotte has consistently sided with her political party to restrict women's access to critical health services. Senator Ayotte has voted six times to defund Planned Parenthood and has also voted to cut all funding to the Title X Family Planning Program, which helps fund 4,200 Family Planning Centers that provide access to breast and cervical cancer screenings and other preventive health care to many low-income women.

Ayotte also supports the backward Hobby Lobby Supreme Court decision that allows employers to deny contraceptive coverage to some women. She introduced legislation that the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said would restrict access and make birth control more expensive. And she has voted five times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which makes preventative care like mammograms available to Granite State women with no co-pay.

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