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senate bill 20
'12-Week Abortion Ban Is Not About Life': Bishop Barber Blasts North Carolina GOP
"If these extremists who claim to be Republicans were serious about life, they would pass living wages, healthcare, family leave, and fully funded public education."
May 11, 2023
Ahead of a gathering at the North Carolina General Assembly planned for Friday morning, Bishop William Barber II on Thursday called out the state's Republican lawmakers for trying to ban abortions after 12 weeks, rather than the current 20 weeks.
"Republican extremists in the North Carolina General Assembly are trying to pass an abortion ban that they say is 'pro-life.' But if they were serious about life, they would be addressing the fourth-leading cause of death in the U.S. today—poverty," said Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
"A 12-week abortion ban is not about life," he stressed. "If these extremists who claim to be Republicans were serious about life, they would pass living wages, healthcare, family leave, and fully funded public education. We must respond to this attack on all North Carolinians with a moral coalition that leads a movement against policies directly harming our nation's people."
"We must respond to this attack on all North Carolinians with a moral coalition that leads a movement against policies directly harming our nation's people."
Barber is set to join an interracial, interfaith group of clergy members and leaders of the North Carolina Poor People's Campaign at 11:00 am ET Friday to decry the pending ban as attack on the state's millions of poor and low-income residents.
The North Carolina GOP's push to further restrict reproductive healthcare is part of a national trend that has intensified since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade with its Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling last June.
Although Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has vowed to veto Senate Bill 20 on Saturday, North Carolina Rep. Tricia Cotham (R-112) suddenly decided to join the Republican Party last month—after years of campaigning and serving as a pro-choice Democrat, and even speaking on the state House floor about her experience having an abortion—giving the GOP a veto-proof majority.
As part of a series of events intended to pressure at least one GOP legislator not to override his veto, Cooper and other critics of S.B. 20 came together Tuesday outside of Charlotte. They targeted Cotham and state Rep. John Bradford (R-98), who both voted for the 12-week ban, which has few exceptions and would also impose other restrictions.
\u201cReminder: just 1 single Republican legislator out of 102 in the entire #NCGA can stop Senate Bill 20, the brutal new Republican 12-week abortion ban, from becoming law.\n\nWill any one of them have the courage?\nhttps://t.co/xtkGI57vVg #ncpol\u201d— Carolina Forward (@Carolina Forward) 1683813055
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic spokesperson Molly Rivera recently told the Citizen Times that "we operate six clinics across the state. None of our health centers, including Asheville, meet the requirements that would be mandated by an ambulatory surgical center license."
The looming law and potential clinic closures could impact people seeking abortion care across the Southeast. Riveria said that "right now, the majority of patients that we're seeing, specifically at the Asheville Health Center, are from out of state."
S.B. 20 was swiftly advanced through the North Carolina General Assembly last week. As The News & Observer detailed:
Between Tuesday night and Thursday evening, House and Senate Republicans announced they had reached an agreement on new abortion restrictions, unveiled the 46-page bill, moved the bill out of a joint committee meeting, and passed the bill through each chamber so it could be sent to the governor.
Debates on the bill were fairly extensive. The Senate's floor debate was the longest of the last decade, according to Senate leader Phil Berger's [R-26] office. But critics have slammed the speed with which the bill cleared the Legislature through a special process that meant it didn't need to go through multiple committees and couldn't be amended.
The Reproductive Freedom Alliance, a nonpartisan group of 22 governors including Cooper, said in a statement Thursday that "the state Legislature rushed this legislation through with little transparency or public input and it has become clear why: The more North Carolinians learn about this law, the more they oppose it."
"We support Gov. Cooper's pledge to veto this dangerous measure and we remain committed to strengthening reproductive freedom across the country," the alliance continued, also highlighting that ten of millions of people have already lost access to abortion care in their home states since Roe was overturned.
Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler of the Carolina Abortion Fund toldThe Guardian this week that her group's clientele has increased "astronomically" post-Dobbs—going from 100-120 calls a week to that many daily, often from people who live in states with even stricter abortion laws.
"It is an economic punishment as much as a moral judgment that they're casting," Orlovsky-Schnitzler said of S.B. 20, "and I think [it] is really beyond the pale."
"Abortion bans won't stop people from wanting or seeking this care," she added. "There are some lawmakers in the state who have previously indicated that they would not support additional restrictions on abortion care. And if we can push them, there's hope."
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Former Democrat Gives NC GOP Veto-Proof Majority to Pass 12-Week Abortion Ban
"The people of North Carolina did not give Republicans a supermajority of the state House," said one progressive group. "Only the duplicity and corruption of Tricia Cotham did."
May 05, 2023
A pro-forced pregnancy bill passed in North Carolina late Thursday is likely to become law despite the objections of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper thanks largely to a sudden decision by state Rep. Tricia Cotham last month to join the Republican Party after years as a pro-choice Democrat—giving the GOP a veto-proof majority.
The state Senate on Thursday passed Senate Bill 20, which includes a ban on abortion care after 12 weeks of pregnancy along with other restrictions, less than 48 hours after they unveiled the legislation at a press conference on Tuesday. The bill was inserted into a separate piece of legislation instead of being officially introduced in the Legislature, taking Democrats and advocacy groups by surprise and allowing no time for public hearings.
According toThe Washington Post, Republicans were deliberately secretive about the crafting of the legislation, which was written in secret meetings in recent weeks where members were forbidden from having their own copies of documents to avoid leaks, in order to prevent advocates from organizing protests at the state Capitol.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic still managed to spearhead a rally on Wednesday, where state Attorney General Josh Stein warned the bill is a "massive first step" toward a total abortion ban, despite Republican claims that a 12-week ban is more "mainstream" than bans starting at six weeks of gestation or at any stage in pregnancy, which have been passed in 15 states including the majority of states in the Southeast.
\u201cProtestors await today\u2019s session.\u201d— Shelby Swanson (she/her) (@Shelby Swanson (she/her)) 1683133341
The bill includes "exceptions" for pregnancies that result from rape or incest through 20 weeks, certain fetal abnormalities through 24 weeks, and for life-threatening complications for a pregnant person.
Numerous cases since the right-wing majority of the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June have shown that such exceptions put patients through weeks of physical and emotional trauma as doctors and hospitals—fearing litigation under the new laws—refuse to provide treatment until their lives are sufficiently in danger.
S.B. 20 also includes restrictions such a requirement that anyone who obtains an abortion before 12 weeks of pregnancy also see their medical provider 72 hours before the procedure, likely cutting off access to out-of-state people, many of whom have traveled to North Carolina from other parts of the South since Roe was overturned, and to people who don't have paid leave or access to childcare.
If the bill becomes law, said NARAL Pro-Choice America, "abortion access across the Southeast will be further decimated."
Cooper told the Post he plans to veto the bill after a delay of up to 10 days to give North Carolina residents time to "digest this very complicated, burdensome legislation that they haven't had a chance to even see," but the governor will have to convince at least one Republican to break the party's veto-proof majority to stop the bill from becoming law.
Because Cotham (R-112) announced just last month that she was joining the GOP, the party now has the 72 House seats it needs to override a veto in the 120-seat state House.
Politics in the state are shifting to the right "with extraordinary speed," said Daniel Nichanian of Bolts.
\u201cPolitics of North Carolina have shifted with extraordinary speed. Weeks ago, a Dem from a safe blue district who ran as a staunch proponents of abortion rights became a Republican, giving them supermajority.\n\nNow GOP rushing thru a 12 week-abortion ban. https://t.co/WboXU3vQcL\u201d— Taniel (@Taniel) 1683141343
Cotham announced her decision to change parties three months after co-sponsoring a bill to codify abortion rights in state law, and five months after winning her election following a vehemently pro-choice campaign. She also spoke about her own abortion on the state House floor in 2015 during a debate over abortion restrictions. On Wednesday, she voted with the Republicans in favor of S.B. 20.
"The people of North Carolina did not give Republicans a supermajority of the state House," said the progressive group Carolina Forward. "Only the duplicity and corruption of Tricia Cotham did these things."
\u201cThe people of North Carolina did not give Republicans a supermajority of the state House.\n\nThey certainly did not vote in favor of radical new anti-abortion restrictions, either.\n\nOnly the duplicity and corruption of @triciacotham did these things.\n\nFor shame. #ncpol\u201d— Carolina Forward (@Carolina Forward) 1683247265
Cooper told the Post he plans to lobby Republicans who have claimed to support abortion rights—including state Rep. Ted Davis (R-19), who did not vote on Wednesday—to tank the GOP's effort to override his veto.
Republicans are "trying to dress this up as a reasonable 12-week ban," the governor told the Post. "It's not."
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