Elective abortion access is now more restricted in North Carolina after the General Assembly passed a new law over the governor’s veto last week.
The act, Senate Bill 20, passed the veto override 72-48 in the House and 30-20 in the Senate, both along party lines, on May 16. Veto overrides require 60% of the vote, and both votes met that threshold by a single “aye.” This came after Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the legislation the previous weekend.
Rep. Karl Gillespie and Sen. Kevin Corbin, Republicans from Franklin, voted for the bill and lauded many of its aspects, which go beyond abortion itself.
Corbin called S20 a “fair compromise,” although adding that this subject “shouldn’t be a political issue, it’s a healthcare issue.”
“Quite frankly, there were a large number of groups and individuals who advocated for a conception bill, basically meaning no abortions at all, but there was no support for that in NCGA,” Corbin said, saying there was a similar lack of votes for a “heartbeat bill,” which would ban elective abortions after 6-7 weeks. “We knew going in Gov. Cooper would override, so we would need enough votes.”
Cooper, a Democrat, said several Republican lawmakers “broke their promises to protect women’s reproductive freedom.
“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,” Cooper said after the GOP supermajority overrode his veto. “I will continue doing everything I can to protect abortion access in North Carolina because women’s lives depend on it.”
SB20 comes after the Republican-majority U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade in 2021, saying it was up to the states to decide for themselves on abortion. North Carolina follows several other Republican-controlled states which have further restricted abortion timeframes or eliminated them.
What S20 does
Gillespie didn’t speak directly on the 12-week elective abortion mandate, rather lauding the other aspects of the 47-page bill.
“A lot of funding in there is to help females during that process, to determine whether they want to go through [abortion],” Gillespie said.
“It’s just a whole lot of money going to assist mothers and children after the baby is born,” Corbin said, adding that he’s always advocated for caring for women and their babies after birth and that S20 accomplishes some of those goals.
Gillespie sent a list of more than 20 things that S20 does. This list includes requiring all clinics that perform surgical abortions to meet the same standards as “ambulatory surgical centers,” and that “any abortions performed after the first trimester must be performed in hospitals.” Since the elective abortion ban is now 12 weeks, all post-first trimester abortions must have been caused by rape or incest, up to 20 weeks; or the fetus must have life-limiting anomalies, up to 24 weeks.
“Really, the only controversial part of the bill is it lowers elective abortions from 20 weeks to 12,” Corbin said. “Other than that, it provides for exceptions for rape and incest for 20 weeks, … expanded abortion for fatal fetal anomalies to 24 weeks, up from 20 weeks.”
The “ambulatory surgical centers” requirement could likely lead to the closure of Planned Parenthood centers in North Carolina, a healthcare nonprofit and abortion provider. The closest Planned Parenthood clinic to Macon County is in Asheville.
Corbin said the added four weeks for fatal fetal anomalies came after “conversations with the medical community.”
“They expressed to us that fatal fetal anomalies…those take longer to develop,” Corbin said.
Many statewide medical organizations criticized S20, including reproductive health physicians at Duke University, saying that legislators didn’t listen to their concerns about the bill.
Some of the other aspects of S20 that don’t specifically entail abortion are creating the crime of misdemeanor domestic violence and increasing the penalty for assaults on pregnant women, increasing 10-year GPS monitoring for certain repeat and violent sexual offenders to lifetime monitoring, increasing the child care subsidy rates for child care centers and homes, increasing foster care and adoption assistance payment rates, increasing paid parental leave of up to eight weeks after birth for state employees, increasing access to certain types of birth control for certain populations and community college assistance for parents.