North Carolina’s Republican-controlled General Assembly~, passed legislation prohibiting most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. After successfully overriding the Democratic governor’s veto late Tuesday, the House completed the second and final part of the override vote after the Senate voted for the override with a comparable three-fifths majority — the fraction required — earlier Tuesday. The party-line votes constitute a significant success for Republican legislature leaders, who needed every Republican member on board to pass the bill despite Gov. Roy Cooper’s opposition.
Cooper rejected the bill over the weekend after spending the previous week traveling over the state trying to persuade at least one Republican to join him on the override, which would have been enough to override his veto. However, the four Republicans targeted by Cooper voted to override, including one who had converted from the Democratic Party. Republicans framed the bill as a compromise to state law, which presently prohibits nearly all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape or incest.
The votes occurred as abortion rights in the United States saw yet another seismic change, with lawmakers in South Carolina and Nebraska also exploring new abortion restrictions. North Carolina and South Carolina are two of the few remaining Southern states with easy access. Such limits are conceivable since the United States Supreme Court overturned the famous 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which established a countrywide right to abortion, last year.
, which was up for a vote in the South Carolina House on Tuesday. A attempt to nearly criminalize abortion was previously rejected by the South Carolina state Senate. A final vote, however, would have to wait until later Wednesday when the South Carolina House agreed to reconvene at 10 a.m. while the computer system was rebooted. Nationally, 14 states have laws prohibiting abortion during pregnancy.
If both the North and South Carolina bans become law, as well as Florida’s recent prohibition, “it would be just devastating for abortion access in the South,” said Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia. Following the final vote in the North Carolina House on Tuesday, abortion rights advocates and Democrats in the chamber gallery booed and yelled “Shame!” Many gallery watchers were hauled away by General Assembly police. Similar outrage erupted following the previous North Carolina Senate debate, despite the fact that many anti-abortion protesters were in the crowd and delighted with the decision.
“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 following the House vote.
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