North Carolina bans abortion after 12 weeks

North Carolina lawmakers successfully overrode Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of a bill banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

By

National News

May 17, 2023 - 1:44 PM

Demonstrators rally in support of abortion rights at the Supreme Court on April 15, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy will be banned in North Carolina after the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature successfully overrode the Democratic governor’s veto late Tuesday.

The vote came as abortion rights in the U.S. faced another tectonic shift with lawmakers in South Carolina and Nebraska also considering new abortion limits. North and South Carolina have been two of the few remaining Southern states with relatively easy access.

Nationally, bans on abortion throughout pregnancy are in effect in 14 states. Such restrictions are possible because the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which established a nationwide right to abortion.

The North Carolina General Assembly and the Senate overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto in party-line votes — a major victory for Republican legislative leaders who needed every GOP member on board to enact the law. The new limits are set to take effect July 1.

Cooper vetoed the measure over the weekend after spending last week traveling around the state to persuade at least one Republican to side with him. But in the end, the four Republicans targeted by Cooper — including one who recently switched from the Democratic Party — opposed him.

State law currently bans nearly all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, without exceptions for rape or incest.

Under the bill that had been up for a vote Tuesday in the South Carolina House, abortion access would be almost entirely banned after about six weeks of pregnancy — before women often know they’re pregnant. The South Carolina state Senate previously rejected a proposal to nearly outlaw abortions. A final vote was expected Wednesday.

Abortion is banned or severely restricted in much of the South, including bans throughout pregnancy in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. In Georgia, it’s allowed only in the first six weeks.

The Carolinas, Florida and Virginia are now the main destinations in the region for those seeking legal abortions. Florida has a ban that kicks in 15 weeks into pregnancy. Under a recent law, that would tighten to six weeks pending a court ruling. Farther west, women often travel to Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico or Colorado.

If both the North and South Carolina bans become law, combined with Florida’s recent ban, “it would be just devastating for abortion access in the South,” Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, said earlier Tuesday.

After the final vote Tuesday in the North Carolina House, abortion-rights advocates and Democrats in the chamber gallery loudly booed the outcome and shouted “Shame!” Many observers in the gallery were escorted out by General Assembly police.

“Women did not ask for your oversight. We didn’t ask for your approval,” Rep. Julie von Haefen, a Wake County Democrat, told GOP colleagues. “It’s our fundamental right to make decisions about our own bodies and our own health care.”

Similar displeasure poured out after the earlier North Carolina Senate debate, although many anti-abortion demonstrators also were in the audience, pleased with the outcome.

“Today marks the beginning of North Carolina’s first real step towards becoming a pro-life state,” Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the socially conservative North Carolina Values Coalition, said after the House vote.

Senate Republicans said Cooper ignored $160 million within the measure that would boost funding to increase contraceptive services, reduce infant and maternal mortality and provide paid maternity leave for state employees and teachers.

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