In elections across the country at all levels, Republicans are furiously backpeddling from their hard-line opposition to reproductive rights. There’s no better example of this than just to our north in New Hampshire.

The Republican candidate for governor Kelly Ayotte is a longtime opponent of reproductive freedom, but is now saying as governor she would not try to restrict the reproductive rights of citizens in the “live free or die” state of New Hampshire. Many in the Granite State are doubtful.

“We just can’t trust her. She is as anti-choice as they come,” says longtime reproductive freedom advocate Susan Arnold from Strafford. “Ayotte has a very long, very well-documented history of calling for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, of defunding Planned Parenthood and of funding right-wing extremist candidates with an anti-abortion platform. And yet, come election time, she’s saying, ‘I won’t change anything in New Hampshire,’ which is consistent with what Republicans across the country are saying. We can’t trust her. She’s making a real effort to have people trust her on this issue. That is flat wrong.”

People in New Hampshire distrust Ayotte for good reason. As a U.S. senator, Ayotte voted to ban abortion nationwide. She called for overturning Roe v. Wade, saying the decision was “wrongly decided.” Four times she voted to defund Planned Parenthood, the biggest provider of low-income reproductive health care in New Hampshire, and she has pledged to do the same as governor.

Ayotte also voted for laws that would have allowed insurance companies and employers to deny employees coverage of birth control and fertility treatments such as IVF. Ayotte also supported Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nomination of Neil Gorsuch, who voted to overturn constitutional abortion rights established in Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“The fact that Kelly Ayotte woke up 14 months ago and abruptly reversed her long-standing stance on abortion rights raises serious concerns about her true intentions,” said Kayla Montgomery, New Hampshire spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Votes. “Granite Staters deserve a governor they can trust, not a politician who shifts her stance only when it’s politically advantageous.”

In addition to her personal opposition to reproductive freedom for women, Ayotte has worked to elect anti-choice women to Congress as a co-founder and former leader of a group called Winning for Women, a political action committee described by The Washington Post as a “major player in getting more anti-abortion women to Washington.”

Winning for Women was established to counter EMILY’s List, the progressive organization to elect pro-choice women to public office. According to NPR, under Ayotte’s leadership, Winning for Women provided over $8.3 million in financial support to 44 anti-abortion candidates who supported overturning Roe v. Wade — candidates, such as Republican former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, who boasted a “100% Trump voting record” and supported a lawsuit by Trump allies to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

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“From her earliest days in public office, Ayotte has consistently opposed abortion access and worked to defund family planning programs. Now, as she campaigns for governor, she wants voters to believe she’s had a sudden change of heart,” said Montgomery. “Granite Staters deserve better than a politician who attempts to rewrite her history to suit her own political ambitions.”

Since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in June 2022, only two of the 22 states where Republicans control the state legislature and governorship have not banned abortion: Alaska and New Hampshire. But New Hampshire does not have explicit protections for reproductive freedom in its state laws or Constitution — the only New England state without these protections. Ayotte has said she would not sign legislation ensuring the legality of abortion in the state if given the opportunity to do so.

New Hampshire’s lack of affirmative protections for abortion access, unique in New England, leaves the door open for legislators to impose restrictions on reproductive freedom. Earlier this year, abortion opponents in the state introduced legislation to ban abortion at 15 days of pregnancy. A co-sponsor of the proposed 15-day abortion ban in New Hampshire, state Sen. Carrie Gendreau, was one of Ayotte’s first endorsers in her campaign for governor.

The Democratic candidate for governor, Joyce Craig, is the polar opposite of Ayotte on reproductive rights, says Arnold. “Joyce Craig is a longtime supporter of reproductive freedom in New Hampshire. She has been very articulate on the campaign trail about the threats to abortion access in the state and has committed to using her role as she can to ensure reproductive freedom.”

Arnold says voter turnout will make the difference and hopes people in Massachusetts will join efforts in New Hampshire to get people to the polls, organized by the New Hampshire Democratic Party and Planned Parenthood.

“All of the exit polling has always shown that people believe that women should make reproductive health care decisions in private with their doctors and their families and without interference by government officials or politicians,” says Arnold. “In this libertarian live-free-or-die state, this keep-your-nose-out-of-my-business state, I cannot imagine being a fully participatory citizen and community member without having the freedom to make the decisions I need to. It’s unimaginable to me.”

Carrie N. Baker is a professor in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College and a regular contributor to Ms. Magazine. Carrie Cuthbert is a human rights educator and director of the Human Rights Initiative at Smith College.