Cornelia Schneider: Feeling like John Sununu failed New Hampshire women

To The Daily Sun,

John Sununu failed New Hampshire women, and he shouldn't get a promotion to the U.S. Senate.

As a longtime nurse, I've spent my career watching for threats to public health. When I see a revolving-door politician who profited while ignoring one, I feel compelled to speak up.

Sununu, now running once again for U.S. Senate, built part of his fortune on a product that caused agony for thousands of women: the transvaginal pelvic mesh, marketed by Boston Scientific to treat pelvic organ prolapse and incontinence. Instead, the polypropylene implants caused severe, life-altering complications — chronic pain, organ perforation, and debilitating erosion into surrounding tissue.

While women suffered, Sununu chaired Boston Scientific's Risk Committee, the board panel charged with overseeing product quality, regulatory compliance, and the company's communications with the FDA. That oversight doesn't end once a device is approved. FDA clearance is only the beginning: manufacturers must keep monitoring how a device performs in real-world use and report safety problems as they surface. Reviewing that ongoing safety data and overseeing dealings with the FDA was squarely the responsibility of Sununu's committee. Even as lawsuits mounted and regulators raised alarms, Boston Scientific fought to keep its pelvic mesh products on the market. Years later, the FDA determined the product was too dangerous to sell.

Sununu was well paid for his role: nearly $450,000 in 2025 alone, even as thousands of women endured multiple revision surgeries and permanent disability from a product his committee was supposed to be watching. He still holds between $5 million and $25 million in company stock.

Voters should ask themselves: is someone whose oversight failed to protect patients fit to represent New Hampshire in the Senate? We deserve leaders who put people ahead of corporate profits. John Sununu is not that person.

Cornelia Schneider

Moultonborough