Over the weekend, Governor Roy Cooper vetoed N.C. Senate Bill 20 (SB20), a bill that would have effectively banned abortion in North Carolina beyond 12 weeks.
According to a release on the governor’s official website, if put into effect, SB20 would ban all abortion after 12 weeks in North Carolina. It would also ban medication abortions — which account for 60% of abortions in the state — after 10 weeks, increase the number of patient-required appointments, and put new procedures in place that “don’t contribute to patient safety.”
Currently, abortion is legal in North Carolina up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.
“Let’s be clear – this bill has nothing to do with making women safer, and everything to do with banning abortion,” Governor Cooper said at a rally for reproductive rights on Saturday.
“How about we leave medicine to the doctors and the decisions to the women.”
