North Carolina’s Legislature voted Tuesday to override the governor’s veto of a 12-week abortion ban, allowing it to become law in a new show of power for the Republican Party in the state.
The GOP’s supermajority voted to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the bill that includes exceptions for rape or incest and a “life-limiting anomaly” in the fetus.
The Senate voted 30-20 along party lines, as did the House, which holds a 72-48 Republican majority.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper had vetoed the legislation Saturday, keeping abortion legal in the state at up to 20 weeks. But House Speaker Tim Moore vowed that the veto would be “swiftly overridden.”
Last month, state Rep. Tricia Cotham joined the Republican Party after campaigning and winning her House seat as a Democrat, handing the Republicans a veto-proof majority.
Cooper had spent the past week locked in a pressure campaign to encourage Republican legislators to break with their party and oppose the bill. In a video posted online, he named four Republican legislators who he said made campaign promises to protect abortion access.
“They say this is a reasonable 12-week ban,” Cooper said. “It’s not. The fine print requirements and restrictions will shut down clinics and make abortion completely unavailable to many women at any time, causing desperation and death.”
The bill’s three Republican co-sponsors and the state Senate majority leader did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The 12-week abortion ban is a less restrictive threshold than other conservative legislatures have implemented. It includes exceptions for rape or incest and a “life-limiting anomaly” in the fetus.
But opponents say it would effectively curtail abortion access in a state that has become a haven for women seeking the procedure. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision last June overturning Roe v. Wade, North Carolina saw a significant increase in the number of abortions provided, suggesting that women from surrounding states may have flocked to North Carolina to bypass strict abortion bans, according to numbers compiled by the nonprofit Society of Family Planning.
The bill, which now becomes law, would place new restrictions on abortion access. It would require that women have an in-person physician visit at least 72 hours prior to receiving a surgical abortion. Doctors must also make available to women a real-time view of the fetus and allow women seeking abortions to listen to the heartbeat of their fetus.
Democrats objected to the speed with which Republicans passed the bill, saying no time was provided for a full debate.
State Sen. Val Applewhite, a Democrat, said she had one night to read the legislative text before it was voted on in committee.
“I stayed up all night with my highlight and pens trying to make tails of it,” Applewhite said. “It’s a lot to take in.”
