'Dressed this up': North Carolina Gov. warns of danger over 12-week abortion ban

07 May 2023

North Carolina Democratic Governor Roy Cooper is deeply concerned about the potential dangerous impact of the state's GOP-backed proposed 12-week abortion ban, Politico reports.

CNN reported Friday, May 5, the governor "previously said he plans to veto the 'extreme' legislation, but if all members vote along party lines, the state's GOP lawmakers have enough votes in both chambers to override any veto from Cooper."

Politico reports:

North Carolina's laws, until now at least, have made it something of an aberration in the South, where stricter abortion laws have gone into effect in the last year, since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. 'The unborn will be recognized as having a fundamental right to be born, and mothers will get our unconditional support. It's time to catch up with the science that affirms parenthood before birth,' said Rep. Sarah Stevens, a Republican member of the General Assembly of the new legislation.

During a Sunday interview with CBS' Face the Nation, Cooper said state Republicans have "dressed this up as a 12-week ban, but it's really not," referring to other restrictions that would also go into effect.

He said the legislation "will effectively ban many abortions altogether, because of the obstacles that they have created for women, for clinics and for doctors."

The Democratic leader is asking "at least one Republican" lawmaker allow his veto of the bill.

"We only need one Republican to keep a promise," Cooper said. "At least four Republican legislators made promises to their constituents during this campaign that they were going to protect women’s reproductive freedom. They only have a supermajority by one vote in the Senate, and one vote in the House. And we've seen Republicans across the country step up. We saw them step up in South Carolina, we saw them step up in Nebraska, because they know that people don’t want abortion bans."

Referring to the GOP leaders behind the restrictive legislation, the governor said, "They ran through a bill in 48 hours with no public input, with no amendments, that drastically reduces access to reproductive freedom for women."

Cooper noted one of the critical reasons why the Tar Heel state should not pass such a bill.

He emphasized, "North Carolina has become an access point in the Southeast. And what this legislation is going to do is going to prevent many women from getting abortions at any time during their pregnancy, because of the obstructions that they had put here. Many of these clinics are working very hard to treat women, and now they're going to have many new medically unnecessary requirements that I think many of them are going to have to close."

Politico's full report is available at this link.

From Your Site Articles