Abortion loses in North Carolina

Late Tuesday evening (May 16), North Carolina’s legislature overrode a governor’s veto and successfully limited abortion to twelve weeks’ gestation. It was a test of a delicate “supermajority” that the North Carolina House had only after a Democrat switched parties. But not only did that supermajority hold, but the White House showed how out-of-touch they are, not only with basic moral sense, but also with how the people feel about abortion.

The abortion veto

On Saturday (May 13), Gov. Roy Cooper (D-N.C.) vetoed a bill to limit abortion in North Carolina to twelve weeks. The bill has exceptions, which it treats in a new manner. Current North Carolina law allows abortion up to twenty weeks. The new law allows the following exceptions, most of which it subjects to time limits:

• To protect the physical life of the mother – no time limit.
• When a health-care provider detects “life altering” fetal anomalies – twenty-four weeks.
• Rape or incest – twenty weeks.

In all other cases, abortion cannot happen after twelve weeks. Furthermore, if one is going to use a mefiprestone/misoprostol regimen, that will require an in-person doctor’s visit at ten weeks. (The News and Observer has those details.)

Gov. Cooper’s veto message said many things at variance with other accounts. For instance he charged the bill (SB 20) would ban chemical abortions after ten weeks.

The governor’s verbatim message that he returned with the bill itself read thus:

This bill will create dangerous interference with the doctor-patient relationship, leading to harm for pregnant women and their families. With its medically unnecessary obstacles and restrictions, it will make abortion unavailable to many women, particularly those with lower incomes, those who live in rural areas, and those who already have limited access to health care.

On the same day he called a rally in Raleigh (the capital) in favor of abortion. Several besmocked doctors joined him on the stage. In his opposition to SB 20, Gov. Cooper had the support of the:

• North Carolina Medical Society,
• North Carolina Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, and
• North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians.

The override

Rep. Tim Moore (R-Cleveland), Speaker of the House, vowed to override the veto. The only reason he could make such a vow is that Rep. Tricia Cotham of Charlotte had switched parties from Democrat to Republican back in April. With that switch, Moore had exactly sixty percent of his chamber, a supermajority in North Carolina. (The North Carolina Senate already has a comfortable supermajority.) Though she ran for election on a “woke” platform, she never mentioned her position on abortion.

Gov. Cooper called on Republicans to honor what he said were promises to protect women’s health. By which he meant to keep abortion as legal as current law permits. This did not happen. According to Fox News, supermajorities in both chambers, voting back-to-back, easily overrode the veto. So the new abortion law will take effect July 1.

Several commenters on the Fox News article told the tale. They wrote of regret at having had (or arranged for) abortions, many of them seeking forgiveness. (Indeed two commenters held that abortion is indeed the taking of an innocent life.) At least two comments spoke of a governor out of touch with the people of his State. “Yes, he is out of touch, and has been for years,” said one. That could explain why North Carolina politics has changed so abruptly. Gov. Cooper won election in 2020 – but today he faces supermajorities of the opposite party in his legislature.

White House reaction

Yesterday Steve Ertelt at Life News reported on the White House’ reaction. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre actually said:

Today, Republican state legislators in North Carolina overturned Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of a dangerous bill that is out of touch with the majority of North Carolinians and will make it even more difficult for women to get the reproductive health care they need.

Dangerous to whom, Ms. Jean-Pierre wouldn’t say. As to out-of-touch, recall: Republicans have a supermajority in North Carolina’s legislature. (Not only that, but they “flipped” their Supreme Court at Midterms, and now that court has reversed itself on overriding a Congressional district map.) More pertinently, Ertelt cited polling showing 62 percent support for the notion of limiting abortion to twelve weeks. That same polling shows only 22 percent support for allowing abortion up to the moment of birth in all cases. Since that is the repeatedly stated position of Gov. Cooper (and his Attorney General), that makes his position inherently disingenuous. That also applies to the Biden administration – but then again, most people expect no better of it today.

The real problem, of course, is that too many people have lost respect for life. Those people are rapidly sorting themselves out into a selection of States. Gov. Cooper should probably move to California, or New York, or New Jersey, or Connecticut, or some such State. Perhaps Karine Jean-Pierre should look to retiring to such a State herself. And maybe they’ll be part of the last generation or two of abortion advocates – because a society that permits abortion on demand for any reason or no reason, is not pro-survival.