North Carolina Needs One More Vote to Protect Babies From Abortions

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Feb 1, 2023   |   12:06PM   |   Charlotte, North Carolina

North Carolina Democrat lawmakers united this week behind a radical pro-abortion bill even as polls show growing public support for legal protections for unborn babies.

Likely due to massive pressure from Democratic Party leaders, every Democrat in the state House and Senate added their names to a bill that would “codify” Roe v. Wade into state law, according to Axios.

State House Bill 19, sponsored by Reps. Becky Carney, D-Charlotte, and Carla Cunningham, D-Huntersville, prohibits legislation from protecting unborn babies from abortions prior to viability, about 22 weeks of pregnancy. However, it also requires any late-term abortion ban to include a broad “health” exception that basically nullifies any limits. Some abortionists say pregnancy itself is a health risk and thus justify abortions for any reason up to birth.

ACTION ALERT: Please contact members of the North Carolina legislature and urge them to support an abortion ban to protect babies. Contact North Carolina lawmakers.

The radical pro-abortion legislation does not have any chance of passing this session. Voters elected a Republican near-supermajority to the North Carolina Legislature in November, and both House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Phil Berger said they want to pass pro-life legislation, The Charlotte Post reports.

In a recent statement, Moore, R-Cleveland, told voters to “expect pro-life protections to be a top priority of the legislature when we return to our normal legislative session in January.”

The state Senate has a Republican supermajority, and state House Republicans only need one Democrat to join them in supporting a pro-life bill in order to override a veto from Gov. Roy Cooper, a pro-abortion Democrat, according to the report.

Right now, North Carolina allows unborn babies to be aborted for any reason up to 20 weeks. In 2020, there were 30,004 abortions reported in the state, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute.

If pro-life lawmakers succeed, North Carolina would join 14 other states that protect unborn babies by prohibiting abortions. Others such as Ohio and South Carolina are fighting in court to enforce their pro-life laws, and still more, including Nebraska and Florida, are considering legislation this winter to protect unborn babies from abortion.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in a historic victory for life and returned the power to legislate abortion to the people. Because of Dobbs v. Jackson, states may protect unborn babies from abortion for the first time in nearly 50 years. Research estimates state abortion bans saved as many as 10,000 unborn babies’ lives in just the first three months.

All pro-life laws allow abortions when the mother’s life is at risk and, in some states, cases of rape and incest. These make up a very small percent of all abortions in the U.S. Research from the Charlotte Lozier Institute found about 96 percent of abortions are for purely elective reasons.

Meanwhile, two new polls show growing public support for legal protections for unborn babies. A Marist College poll found 69 percent of Americans support limiting or banning abortions, up from 62 percent in June. Another new poll from UMass Amherst found a 5-percent drop in those who say Congress should pass a law to make abortions legal nation-wide and a 6-percent increase in support for a national abortion ban, WCVB News reports.

ACTION ALERT: Please contact members of the North Carolina legislature and urge them to support an abortion ban to protect babies. Contact North Carolina lawmakers.