RALEIGH, North Carolina (LifeSiteNews) — Republican lawmakers in North Carolina overrode the veto of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday and enacted a law that bans most abortions after 12 weeks and places new restrictions on abortion drugs and clinics.
The Senate voted 30-20 along party lines Tuesday evening to uphold Senate Bill 20, and the House followed hours later with a 72–48 vote.
Cooper, a strong supporter of unrestricted abortion, vetoed the bill at a rally with abortion activists on Saturday, saying that it would “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.”
The legislation is the result of private negotiations between conservative and moderate Republicans after the North Carolina GOP secured a narrow supermajority in the state legislature last month.
Donald Trump has suggested a 6-week abortion ban is ''too harsh'', attacking Gov. Ron DeSantis for his bill protecting innocent human life after 6 weeks.
Obviously pro-lifers wish to protect all human life from conception with outright abortion bans.
SIGN: Donald Trump MUST support pro-life legislation
The former president said he is ''looking at all alternatives'' when asked if he would support such a 6-week ban, making this a crucial opportunity for pro-life voters to make their views known to him in no uncertain terms.
"He has to do what he has to do," Trump said about Gov. DeSantis' abortion bill. "If you look at what DeSantis did, a lot of people don't even know if he knew what he was doing. But he signed six weeks, and many people within the pro-life movement feel that that was too harsh."
Anyone truly in the pro-life movement thinking the ban is too harsh must mean it's too harsh on those babies less than 6-weeks who can still be murdered.
Mr. Trump's outlandish claim about anyone in the pro-life movement opposing the ban is doubtful to say the least, but there was more to follow in the interview.
When pressed on whether he thought the bill was ''too harsh'', Trump would not answer directly, instead saying: ''I'm looking at all alternatives. I'm looking at many alternatives. But I was able to get us to the table by terminating Roe v. Wade. That's the most important thing that's ever happened for the pro-life movement.''
The former president is correct in saying the overturning of Roe v. Wade was a monumental step for the pro-life movement, but it should only be the beginning of banning the killing of babies in the womb entirely.
Donald Trump's belief that even a 6-week abortion ban is extreme spells trouble for every citizen concerned about ending abortion, which is why we need you to take part in this urgent petition to him.
SIGN & SHARE: We must change Donald Trump's mind on abortion
Our true loyalty is to innocent human beings facing death, none more so than those in the womb, and any candidate who prevaricates about something so important to building a civilized society has to be corrected.
We urge all Republican candidates to advocate for a total ban on abortion, without any exceptions - not just at 6-week's gestation as an incremental measure.
SIGN & SHARE our petition urging Donald Trump to do the right thing.
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Trump distances himself from 6-week abortion ban by DeSantis: 'Too harsh' - LifeSiteNews
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Though it falls short of a six-week ban pushed for by conservative lawmakers and pro-life groups this year, Senate Bill 20 contains a package of pro-life measures expected to disrupt the abortion industry in North Carolina, which has become a major abortion haven in the South since the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
The law bans surgical abortion after 12 weeks, down from 20 weeks, and chemical abortion after 10 weeks and prohibits mailing abortion-inducing drugs to pregnant women. Chemical abortions – or abortions induced by pills, like mifepristone – accounted for nearly 60 percent of abortions in North Carolina in 2020.
It also imposes a 72-hour waiting period for abortions, requires women to make an in-person visit to an abortion clinic at least three days before an abortion, expands informed consent and reporting requirements, allows women to view an ultrasound image of their unborn child, gives them a private right of action to sue if they feel they have been coerced or misled by an abortionist, and bans advertising illegal sales of abortion pills.
Abortionists must schedule a follow-up visit for women seven to 14 days after a chemical abortion, which can only take place following an in-person examination and screening for abuse and coercion.
Senate Bill 20, moreover, tightens health and safety regulations for abortion facilities, requiring them to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers, which may force them to shut down if they cannot afford costly upgrades.
Planned Parenthood has said that none of its six facilities in North Carolina meet the requirement. A similar rule in Texas led to the closure of more than a dozen abortion clinics in 2014.
Senate Bill 20 takes effect on July 1.
“The battleground state of North Carolina has taken a major step forward in the fight for life,” SBA Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a press release. “North Carolinians reject elective painful, late-term abortion and Americans feel the same.”
A blow to abortion in the South
The new restrictions are a major blow to abortion in the South and make it particularly difficult for women traveling from out of state to get abortions in North Carolina.
As most southern states have banned virtually all abortions after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, abortions have surged in North Carolina more than in any other state, rising 37 percent between April and August 2022.
MAP: Most abortions are banned in 14 states, more states to follow
Around 5,000 additional unborn babies were killed in the Old North State in the first six months after the Supreme Court reversed Roe in June, according to estimates from the pro-abortion Society for Family Planning.
North Carolina already had some of the highest abortion numbers in the country, reporting more than 30,000 abortions in 2020. Nineteen percent occurred between nine and 12 weeks’ gestation, and 12 percent took place after 13 weeks.
But the proportion of late-term abortions has likely increased in recent months, with abortion facilities reporting wait times over a month long and women traveling to North Carolina from as far south as Texas, according to a recent New York Times report.
The enactment of Senate Bill 20, the recent approval of a six-week ban in Florida, and the expected passage of a similar bill in South Carolina will cripple the abortion industry in the South and put outsized pressure on Virginia, which may not have capacity to meet demand, the Associated Press reported.
Protecting conscience rights, banning eugenic abortion
Other provisions of Senate Bill 20 include protections for medical professionals who refuse to participate in abortion on “moral, ethical, or religious grounds,” a ban on partial-birth abortion “at any time,” and a ban on abortions sought “in whole or in part” due to a baby’s race, sex, or Down syndrome diagnosis, as LifeSiteNews previously reported. And it requires doctors to provide the same care to babies who survive abortions as they would to any other babies of the same gestational age or face felony charges.
READ: Republican congressman confronts abortion activist who discussed crushing the ‘skull’ of babies
The law allows abortions for rape and incest up to 20 weeks, for “life-limiting” fetal anomalies up to 24 weeks, and when allegedly necessary to avoid a woman’s death, though not for “psychological or emotional conditions.” Medical experts have attested that abortion is never medically necessary.
Abortions after 12 weeks must take place in a hospital.
Senate Bill 20 also contains tens of millions of dollars in funding for alternatives to abortion and initiatives intended to strengthen families, including $75 million to expand childcare access, more than $58 million to support foster care and children’s homes, $20 million for paid parental leave for teachers and state employees, and $16 million, including matching federal funds, to reduce infant and maternal mortality, according to The Carolina Journal.
The law, however, allocates $7 million to promote long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) to low-income women. LARC can act as an abortifacient.
It additionally increases penalties for domestic violence and assaulting a pregnant woman and green-lights lifetime GPS monitoring of repeat violent sex offenders.