Mixed reactions as New Hampshire teacher is fired for helping student terminate pregnancy

A public school teacher in New Hampshire was recently dismissed for allegedly driving a student to an abortion clinic while on sick leave. According to a report by the New Hampshire Department of Education, the instructor called in ill due to food poisoning.

The instructor later revealed to the school that they were not unwell and “went with a student to a medical appointment,” according to the report, which redacts the names of those involved.

Though the identity of those involved is unknown, the report added that the teacher and student had allegedly “been conversing for 2.5 weeks regarding the medical appointment.”

The teacher allegedly helped the student determine “how far along they were.” The report included language that the teacher found the student “a safe facility” and offered to go with them. While the document stated that the school had terminated the teacher, it did not identify the nature of the student’s procedure, but various state senators told the NH Journal it was an abortion.

State Rep. Erica Layon, R-Derry, told the outlet, “I am horrified to hear that a teacher in our New Hampshire schools felt the right way to help a pregnant student who felt unsupported in her pregnancy was to research abortion facilities and call out sick to take a student to an abortion rather than to help her speak with her parents and find support from her family.”

On Monday, supporters criticized the teacher’s contentious firing at a demonstration in New Hampshire commemorating the anniversary of the Dobbs decision, which reversed Roe V. Wade abortion regulations.

At a packed reproductive rights gathering in Concord, several people came out in support of the teacher, claiming the teacher was put in a difficult situation. One protester, Maryrose Wainaina, stated, “I feel like the teacher was just doing what they felt, as a human, and putting their job at risk. As a student, you go to your teachers cause you trust them.”

Counter-protesters also spoke out at a pro-choice event in Concord.

Margaret Svedsen said, “The teacher should not be involved with them, taking those kids to those clinics. Medical procedures? You can’t give a kid an aspirin in school, and yet you can take them to have an abortion, which may have complications, and not tell a parent? No.”

The teacher has since sued the Department of Education and the state’s top education officials, stating that they spun a “misleading narrative” about the incident even though they knew the student was not a minor, Boston Globe reported on Wednesday.