RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina may become a destination for women who are seeking abortion care and coming from states with more restrictive laws since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month.
Gov. Roy Cooper on Wednesday said he’ll continue to fight for abortion rights and signed an executive order aimed to protect access to services in the state. He said states are “taking our country backward to the ‘50s and ‘60s where women died in back alleys.”
Dr. Katherine Farris, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and a “proud provider of abortion care” in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, said that North Carolina “has emerged as a critical access point for the entire region.”
Farris said she and her Planned Parenthood South Atlantic colleagues in North Carolina will deliver abortion care to nearly 200 patients this week from other states, including South Carolina.
A third of patients are now from out of state, she said, and she expects that to increase in the days and weeks to come.
A key part of the executive order signed by Cooper on Wednesday would help someone who is pregnant and seeking abortion services in North Carolina.
Cabinet agency employees, which includes those working in the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Public Safety, may not “provide information or expend or use time, money, facilities, property, equipment, personnel, or other resources in furtherance of any investigation or proceeding that seeks to impose civil or criminal liability or professional sanction upon a person or entity” for reproductive health care services in North Carolina that are legal.
The order provides exceptions for court orders and federal and state laws.
The order also protects against extradition to other states, saying North Carolina will “decline requests for the extradition of any person charged with a criminal violation in another state where the violation alleged arises out of the inquiry into, provision of, assistance with, securing of, or receipt of reproductive health care services that are lawful in North Carolina, unless the acts forming the basis of the prosecution of the crime charged would also constitute a criminal offense under North Carolina law.”
Here’s what else the order calls for:
—Law enforcement protection of reproductive health facilities.
The governor said he has been talking to law enforcement leaders this week about making sure they know the law about protecting access to abortion facilities. The Department of Public Safety will work with local law enforcement agencies to remind them about it.
“We want to make sure that law enforcement is fully aware of this legislation that makes it a crime to block access to a health care facility. We know that law enforcement wants to make sure they respect the First Amendment and allow people to protest,” Cooper said. “At the same time, if we’re talking about specific patients trying to get into that facility and that access is blocked, it’s important for law enforcement to step up.”
—State employees will not be required to travel to a state with laws they are “concerned about.”
“If a pregnant state employee needs to travel to another state, then if that employee is concerned about the laws in that state as they relate to the mother’s health — if that employee is concerned about that — then she doesn’t have to be required to make that trip out of state,” Cooper said.
For supporters of abortion rights, Cooper is seen as the last line of Democrats’ defense against the Republican-majority General Assembly’s potential legislation to limit access to abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court decision. With no constitutional right to abortion, laws are left up to the states. Several states had trigger laws that outlawed or limited abortion.
In North Carolina, abortion is banned after 20 weeks, with some exceptions, by a state law that has been blocked in court but could soon take effect. The state also has a law requiring a three-day waiting period.
Cooper is chair of the Democratic Governors Association and one of several Democratic governors who had a virtual meeting with President Joe Biden last week about abortion rights.
Cooper noted his veto power during the call, The N&O previously reported, saying he would “hold the line to protect women’s reproductive freedom in our state.” He made the same point on Wednesday, surrounded by women lawmakers running for reelection and several women legislative candidates, as well as Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, as he signed an executive order with no expiration date.
Republicans have majorities in the House and Senate but not the three-fifths supermajorities needed to override Cooper vetoes. House Speaker Tim Moore told reporters soon after the Supreme Court decision that lawmakers would wait until after the November election, which they hope will result in a supermajority taking control in January. Cooper’s gubernatorial term runs through 2024.
Moore, a Kings Mountain Republican, said in May he would be willing to look at abortion legislation in 2023.
“I’m solidly, consistently pro-life,” Moore said.
Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the North Carolina Values Coalition, which opposes abortion, said in a statement Wednesday that Cooper’s order was “an election year stunt, contrived to scare women into thinking there is a problem to solve. North Carolina abortion laws have not changed since Roe [v.] Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, and this is just Governor Cooper’s virtue signaling to the abortion industry which is nervous about a predicted veto-proof majority come November.”
House Democrats filed House Bill 1119, or the “Reproductive Freedom Act,” in late June that would protect abortion rights in the state. It did not get a committee hearing, and the legislative session ended July 1 after lawmakers passed a state budget bill.
The budget awaits action from the governor by a July 11 deadline, and Cooper hasn’t said what he’ll do. The Republican-written budget includes, as it has in previous years, funding for crisis pregnancy centers that work to deter women from having abortions.
“I don’t support this kind of funding,” Cooper said. “I certainly think that you need to make sure that you’re giving patients accurate information about all of their options, so I’m concerned about that funding. I’ll look at the entire budget.”
“As you know, I have to either sign it or veto it or let it become law – I don’t get to amend it, don’t have a line-item veto, but we’ll certainly be looking at the budget as a whole over the next few days,” Cooper told reporters.
The budget also includes an additional 1% raise for state employees and $1 billion in a fund to respond to inflation costs for construction and infrastructure projects in the works.
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