RALEIGH, N.C. — As state lawmakers convened on Wednesday for the first day of the 2023 legislative session, abortion rights activists gathered outside the nearby State Capitol to protest anticipated efforts by Republicans to curtail abortion laws this year.
Behind the scenes, efforts are underway to build consensus among GOP lawmakers on what exactly they should propose.
Having won greater majorities in both the House and Senate in November, Republicans have promised to change the current abortion law, which restricts the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy. GOP leaders of both chambers have said there is a range of opinions in their caucuses on how many weeks the law should be rolled back by, and it remains unclear when Republicans will unveil a bill.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Speaker Tim Moore said that House Republicans had put together a working group in their caucus that represented a diverse set of opinions to try to agree on a proposal with a similar group in the Senate Republican caucus.
Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters that lawmakers should provide exceptions for rape and incest. State law currently allows an exception after 20 weeks only for medical emergencies, which critics say is too narrowly defined.
“Our law does not allow an exception for rape, does not allow an exception for incest, and I think we need to change that,” Berger told reporters. “I also think that 20 weeks is, in essence, five months into a pregnancy. I think if you look at where the people of the state of North Carolina are, they think that that’s too long.”
House Democratic Leader Robert Reives rejected the notion that North Carolinians support a more restrictive abortion law, as Republicans have suggested.
“There’s no issue in my mind, where the citizens would fall on this, because of what you’ve seen in other states. You’ve seen states like Kansas and Kentucky, states that I think you would not normally expect to jump up and protect the right to (abortion),” Reives said.
Abortion activists gather, more coming
Protests for and against abortion rights were common in downtown Raleigh last year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, and protests will likely continue as activists on both sides of the issue await the GOP’s proposed restrictions. The annual March for Life takes place on Saturday afternoon.
Sage Smith, an activist with Triangle Democratic Socialists of America, said abortion access is already limited, and that further restrictions would force people trying to get an abortion into “troublesome and often very time-sensitive situations.”
“Absolutely nobody should have to jump through so many hoops just to obtain basic health care,” Smith said. “Each and every last one of us deserves to make our very own reproductive decisions. Each barrier, restriction and delay adds cost to an already difficult process, and these costs are hardships that fall hardest on the people who are already struggling to pay for an unexpected abortion.”
Abortion protesters
Simran Singh Jain, a Durham-based activist and doula, said that more restrictive bans on abortion would hurt poor people and other vulnerable people the most. She also said that the fight for abortion rights activists doesn’t begin or end with Roe.
“We fight until all our people get what they need, because abortions have happened since the beginning of time,” she said. “And they will always, always happen, no matter what.”
Berger seeks earlier ban, exceptions for rape and incest
Republicans won a supermajority in the Senate, allowing them to pass bills through that chamber over a veto from Gov. Roy Cooper, while House Republicans fell one seat short of that threshold.
Berger said last year he supported a ban at around 13 weeks of gestation, or the end of the first trimester, while Moore expressed support for a so-called heartbeat bill, which would prohibit abortions at around 6 weeks.
Moore didn’t say Wednesday if his own opinion had changed, but asked if he was worried that passing further restrictions could hurt Republicans politically, he said GOP lawmakers would approach the issue as they do any other issue: by adopting a “reasonable common-sense position” and “not taking an extreme position.”
He also said that GOP leaders hadn’t determined when the House would consider an abortion bill, and that any bill would “work through the normal legislative process.”
Berger appeared to express support for his earlier position — a ban at the end of the first trimester.
“Where my caucus is, we still have not had an opportunity to try to work through that,” he said.
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