(ReclaimingAmerica.net) – North Carolina’s Liberal Democrat Governor Roy Cooper has vetoed a GOP-sponsored state bill prohibiting almost all abortions through the 12th week of pregnancy.
Cooper placed his veto stamp on the bill “in an unconventionally public display” before “an exuberant crowd” on a plaza in the state capital of Raleigh, AP reports.
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“We’re going to have to kick it into an even higher gear when that veto stamp comes down,” Cooper declared.
“If just one Republican in either the House or the Senate keeps a campaign promise to protect women’s reproductive health, we can stop this ban,” he added.
The report notes the governor’s veto has created “a major test” for the Republicans controlling North Carolina’s General Assembly as they will seek to override it after recently gaining “veto-proof majorities in both chambers” of the legislature.
The GOP majority adopted the new abortion legislation in the wake of last year’s ruling of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
The now-vetoed bill limits abortion to the 12th week of pregnancy but allows exceptions for race and incest – through 20 weeks and for “life-limiting” anomalies of the fetus – through 24 weeks.
The existing state law in North Carolina bans most abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy.
Before he vetoed the new bill on Sunday, the Democrat governor engaged in campaign efforts to urge residents to pressure some Republican legislators who were more hesitant than their colleges on the stricter bill.
Cooper argued the new draft law would “greatly erode reproductive rights” since it would require women to have multiple in-person visits to a doctor and file extra paperwork for informed consent to have an abortion.
The governor and other pro-abortionist activists insisted that such measures would cause clinics to close down, and women in rural areas would have no access to “abortion services.”
“Compared to recent actions by Republican-controlled legislatures elsewhere, the broad prohibition after 12 weeks can be viewed as less onerous to those in other states where the procedure has been banned almost completely,” AP comments.
The North Carolina Republicans say their law is pro-child and pro-family. It provides at least $160 million in spending for maternal health services, maternity leaves, contraceptive access, and foster and adoption care.
“I look forward to promptly overriding his veto,” state Senate’s Republican leader Phil Berger declared in a statement, accusing the governor of “feeding the public lies” and “bullying” GOP politicians to block the draft law.
Cooper has targeted four Republican legislators – one senator and three representatives – who allegedly told voters last year they would defend “abortion access” – to convince them not to vote against his veto.
“The way he’s been showing up in their districts and harassing their constituents, it’s disgusting,” said Wes Bryant, one of some 60 anti-abortion protesters against Cooper’s pro-abortion rally.
