NC’s Democratic governor rallies support behind a veto
North Carolina rallied on Saturday to sustain Gov. Roy Cooper’s public veto of Republicans’ recently passed 12-week abortion ban.
The Democrat decried the legislation, which he vetoed at a rally in downtown Raleigh, as a “complicated and confusing monster bill” that makes patients “navigate a wicked obstacle course just to get care.”
“Standing in the way of progress right now is this Republican supermajority legislature that only took 48 hours to turn the clock back 50 years on women’s health,” Cooper said. “Let’s be clear: This bill has nothing to do with making women safer and everything to do with banning abortion.”
With the GOP holding veto-proof margins in both legislative chambers, Democrats (if even they can maintain a unified front) will need the defection of at least one Republican in either chamber to sustain Cooper’s veto. The blowback on that member would be fierce. After the state Supreme Court reversed a previous ruling against gerrymandered Republican maps, GOP legislators are even now redrawing legislative districts … again.
“If even just one Republican in either the House or the Senate keeps a campaign promise to protect women’s reproductive health, we can stop this ban,” Cooper said. “There are four legislators who made these promises, but I think there may be more who know in their hearts and minds that this is bad.”
While 93 percent of abortions are performed during the first trimester of pregnancy, according to the CDC, abortion-rights advocates argue the legislation would impose unnecessary restrictions on access.
According to a Meredith College poll from February, 57 percent of North Carolina voters support either keeping the state’s 20-week limit or expanding access beyond that, while about 35 percent favor of new restrictions.
If democracy still held in the state, the majority’s opinion might carry weight. As is, it does not.
If approved, the law will reduce the time in which abortions can be performed from 20 weeks to 12 weeks, with exceptions for rape and incest, fatal fetal abnormalities and to save the life of the pregnant person. The bill, which takes effect July 1, would also require patients to have an in-person doctor’s visit at least 72 hours before receiving an abortion.
The devil being in the details, opponents argue the additional rules and restrictions in the bill amount to a ban other means.