North Carolina’s Republican-dominated legislature on Tuesday evening approved a bill to ban most abortions after 12 weeks, overriding the Democratic governor’s recent veto of the new restrictions.
The success of the override vote was a victory for Republicans and a critical test of their new, but slim, supermajority. The vote, made in both chambers in back-to-back sessions, marks a dramatic change for abortion access in North Carolina, where abortion is currently legal up to 20 weeks. The vote also limits access for women throughout the South who have traveled to North Carolina to obtain abortions from states where the procedure was banned.
The new law enters into force on 1 July.
The vote came just days after Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill at a raucous rally near the legislative building in Raleigh on Saturday.
Given the Republican supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature, the override wasn’t entirely a surprise, but it wasn’t assured either. Only one vote could have tipped the outcome.
The Senate voted for the override, and the House passed the bill soon after. Immediately after Parliament voted to approve the ban, crowds of onlookers chanted: “Shame! Shame! Shame!”
The ban, known as Senate Bill 20, would limit most abortions in North Carolina to 12 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest, certain fetal abnormalities and the life of the mother. The ban also mandates that detailed information about abortion procedures be reported to state health authorities.
The legislation, which was only introduced two weeks ago, sparked a political uproar in North Carolina. Polls show most voters support the state’s current abortion access up to 20 weeks or want to see it extended, and just over a third of voters want to limit or ban access.
