Democrats introduce bill to codify Roe v. Wade protections in North Carolina

CHARLOTTE — After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and removed federal protections for abortion last year, a North Carolina House Democrat has introduced a bill that would codify Roe in the state.

House Bill 19 was introduced this week by Rep. Robert Reives and has over a dozen co-sponsors. The bill would protect people’s access to abortion care in North Carolina “by enshrining the protections of the U.S. Supreme Court cases, Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, into state law,” according to a statement from Rep. John Autry, who represents a portion of southeast Charlotte.

Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973 and established a fundamental right to privacy, protecting abortion access. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022.

Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote for the court majority, wrote that the 1973 ruling was “an abuse of judicial authority.” Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan dissented, saying that “women today will come of age with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers.”

House Democrats say that since Roe was overturned, a “public health crisis has unfolded across the South as conservative state legislatures pass extreme bans on abortion.”

North Carolina currently has abortion restrictions including a 72-hour mandatory delay and a ban on abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Republican House Speaker Tim Moore has said the General Assembly may try to pass additional bans on abortion.

With a minority in both chambers of the General Assembly, the Democrat caucus faces an uphill battle to get HB19 to the governor’s desk. The bill was filed on Wednesday but hadn’t been assigned to a committee as of Thursday.

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