RALEIGH — A proposed 12-week abortion ban in North Carolina passed in the House, 71-46, Wednesday night.
On Thursday, the North Carolina state Senate began discussing the bill ahead of a scheduled vote. Just minutes before 5 p.m., the Senate voted along party lines to pass the bill.
With both chambers passing the bill, it now heads to Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk. He has said that he’ll veto the bill, but the Republican Party has supermajorities in both chambers, allowing them to potentially override the governor’s veto.
Late Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore held a quickly announced news conference to speak about the new bill. The bill was officially filed later Tuesday evening.
The announcement came weeks after Republicans gained supermajorities in both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly with the switch of Rep. Tricia Cotham from the Democratic Party.
The bill sped through a Joint Rules Committee meeting in Raleigh Wednesday morning and was passed in the House later that night.
“This is the best piece of compromise-mainstream legislation that we can put forward,” Sen. Vickie Sawyer, R-Mecklenburg, Iredell, said on Tuesday.
Calla Hales, the executive director of the Preferred Women’s Health Center in east Charlotte, sees it differently.
“The absolute monster this bill has become,” Hales said the day after the bill was introduced. “I was absolutely taken aback.”
Hales said the bill forces women seeking an abortion to have an in-person consultation, as well as a three-day wait for the procedure.
“It will still prevent people from getting the care that they need, absolutely,” Hales said.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, 12 states have near or total bans. Four have stricter regulations than North Carolina. Abortions are unavailable in two states making them more costly and difficult for those without resources.
Flip Benham, the director of Operation Save America, said he is not happy about the bill either. He said the bill doesn’t go far enough.
“Of course not. It’s not OK to kill children,” Benham said.
Some opponents of abortion regulations worry that lawmakers will keep pushing for a total ban, which is something Benham said he can support.
What’s in the bill?
North Carolina currently has a 20-week limit on abortions. That made the state a haven for many residents in southern states that have enacted stricter abortion laws in the wake of the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Moore said Tuesday that SCOTUS decision directly led to the new legislation being introduced in North Carolina.
Republicans said Tuesday that the new bill would restrict elective abortions in the second and third trimesters, but provides exceptions at 20 weeks for rape or incest, and at 24 weeks for life-threatening anomalies. There would be no limit to abortions if the mother’s life is at risk.
According to the Republican legislators, the bill will also increase funding for foster care families and for adoptions, and it will increase medical funding. That includes promises like $2.5 million to increase Medicaid reimbursement, $10 million for paid parental leave, and over $10 million to increase adoption assistance, among other funding measures.
The legislators said that the bill will also require patients seeking an abortion to undergo an “informed consent” process. That process will include a doctor’s examination information about possible risks to the procedure, but the legislators said patients will also have to see an ultrasound before being able to give consent. The doctor will also have to be present when an abortion-inducing drug is given to the patient. Doctors will be fined $5,000 if they don’t follow the correct procedures and documentation, according to the legislators.
Republicans said they are united behind the legislation, which several democrats quickly condemned after the news conference.
“Here in North Carolina, our archaic, abortion laws date back to the 1970s in response to Roe v Wade,” said Sen. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth. “Since then, our laws have allowed abortion until the second trimester of a woman’s pregnancy. That is unacceptable. We have the opportunity to save many lives.”
“I am incredibly disappointed that the Republican Party of North Carolina thought that it was acceptable to treat women in North Carolina as if they are cattle and that the government needs to make the decisions for them because they are not capable or intelligent enough to make their own health care decisions that are in their best interests and their family’s best interests,” said Rep. Laura Budd, D-Mecklenburg.
Earlier this year, over 1,000 healthcare workers signed a letter urging legislators to not enact any new abortion limits, saying the existing ban already interferes with their work and puts patients at risk.
[ RELATED: Doctors urge NC lawmakers to oppose new abortion limits ]
While there are enough Republican legislators to override a veto of the restrictions by Cooper, it’s not yet certain if every member will vote in favor of overriding the veto.
Gov. Cooper responded on Twitter, saying that he opposes the legislation.
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