Cooper & pro-choice champions beat back deceptive anti-abortion bill and NC-GOP’s shameful political stunts

The deceptive so-called “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act” has been defeated once and for all, even though House Speaker Tim Moore tried to postpone the veto override vote at least NINE times. He wanted to sneak in a vote when pro-choice champions like Rep. Sydney Batch of Wake County, who is currently recovering from breast cancer treatment, were not on the floor.

• Rep. Batch cut her cancer recovery time short in order to stand up for women’s rights. Instead of taking time to recover from her mastectomy, she showed up to every single session just in case Moore actually called the vote on SB 359. Moore kept postponing because he knew he did not have the votes if all NC House members were present.
• Thanks to the perseverance of pro-choice champions like Rep. Batch and public pressure from people like you, Speaker Moore was finally forced to hold the vote last week. With all members attending, the veto override failed.
• This deceptive and unnecessary legislation which was not based on any medical science was only meant to further complicate women’s relationships with their doctors. Thankfully, it will not become law.
• This is proof that elections matter. If Roy Cooper had lost in 2016, the bill likely would not have been vetoed at all. And if Democrats had not broken the GOP supermajorities in 2018, they would not have had enough votes to stop the veto override. The GOP’s six-year stranglehold over NC’s state legislature is over.
• As The New York Times said, this was “a rare defeat for anti-abortion activists in the South.” This was Gov. Cooper’s first veto since the 2018 elections which broke the GOP’s super-majorities in NC’s state legislature.
• All Democrats in the NC House except for two voted to sustain Gov. Cooper’s veto. The two Democrats who voted to override Cooper’s veto in the NC House were Rep. Charles Graham (D-Robeson Co.) and Rep. Garland Pierce (D-Scotland Co.). In the state Senate, Sen. Don Davis (D-Greene Co.) was the only Democrat to override Cooper’s veto there.
• This ridiculously named “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act” was always just a political tool to rile up the GOP’s right-wing base. Doctors are already held to a 2002 federal law that protects fetuses that survive abortions.

Abortion rights have been under attack across the South this year. But thanks to huge public outcry and the dedication of heroes like Rep. Batch, North Carolina will NOT take yet another step backward in the fight for reproductive rights.