North Carolina 12-week abortion bill becomes law after Republicans override veto

The North Carolina Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill banning most abortions after 12 weeks’ gestation, clearing the necessary three-fifths threshold on a party-line vote with no votes to spare.

The House voted 72-48 after the Senate voted 30-20 to overturn the Democrat governor’s veto of Senate Bill 20, a measure that lowers the cut-off for most abortions from 20 to 12 weeks’ gestation.

Immediately after the House vote, pro-choice advocates in the packed gallery chanted “Shame!” The House Speaker ordered the sergeant-at-arms to have them removed.

Mr. Cooper fired off a statement afterward accusing several Republicans of breaking their promise to “protect women’s reproductive freedom” and vowing to do “everything I can to protect abortion access in North Carolina because women’s lives depend on it.”

“North Carolinians now understand that Republicans are unified in their assault on women’s reproductive freedom and we are energized to fight back on this and other critical issues facing our state,” said Mr. Cooper.

No House or Senate Republican flipped despite intense pressure from pro-choice advocates and Mr. Cooper, who toured the state last week to drum up opposition to SB 20 before vetoing it at a Saturday rally in Raleigh.

Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers, but only one House or Senate Republican would be needed to defeat the override of the legislation, named the Care for Women, Children and Families Act.

Republican state Rep. Kristin Baker said the bill represents “a consensus position of North Carolina citizens, the vast majority of whom support limitations to abortion after 12 weeks.”

“As a physician, I took an oath. That oath is a duty. It is a duty to first do no harm and it is a duty to protect each and every life. Each and every life,” said Ms. Baker on the House floor. “That is exactly what Senate Bill 20 does and that is exactly why the only two physicians in the entire North Carolina General Assembly are supporting Senate Bill 20.”

The bill includes exceptions, raises the gestational limit for rape and incest through 20 weeks’ gestation and for serious fetal abnormalities through 24 weeks.

The Senate has overridden the Governors veto  
House vote incoming #ncpol pic.twitter.com/CBVQ7Y89Vq

— Sebastian King (@SebastianKingNC) May 16, 2023

Polls show a majority of Americans support restricting most abortions to the first trimester, which is about 13 weeks’ gestation, but Democrats condemned the bill as a threat to the health of women and girls as well as the state’s medical community.

“This bill is a slap in the face. It is a muzzle over our mouths, and it is a straitjacket on our bodies,” said Democrat state Sen. Natasha Marcus on the Senate floor. “It is honestly hard for me to believe that my government would do this to me, to my daughters, to my friends, to their daughters.”

After the vote, some Senate Democrats held up purple signs that said “Politicians Make Crappy Doctors.”

Pro-choice onlookers in the packed gallery waved signs with the message “Bans Off Our Bodies,” while their pro-life counterparts held up “Vote Pro-Life” placards.

Pro-life advocates cheered the veto override, noting that the bill also includes $160 million to support pregnant women and children, including $75 million for childcare, $59 million for foster care and children’s homes, and $16 million to combat infant and maternal mortality.

“Pro-life North Carolinians have waited over 50 years to roll back the gestational age for sanctioned killing of pre-born children,” said NC Values Coalition executive director Tami Fitzgerald. “With this veto override, legislators have rejected Governor Cooper’s extreme, unreasonable position of abortion without restriction up to birth.”

The abortion issue took center stage in state legislatures this year following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, which overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion nationwide.