Abortion in NC
July 3, 2013 1 Comment
As you may have heard, in a bit of stealth political maneuvering yesterday, the NC Senate sprang substantial abortion restrictions into legislation with basically no warning (it was part of the absurd anti-sharia bill). The restrictions are pretty similar to what you may have heard about in the Texas case that had the famous filibuster last week:
RALEIGH, N.C. — With the gallery packed by abortion rights supporters and a protest waged outside the Legislative Building, the state Senate on Wednesday gave its blessing to a series of abortion restrictions.
The bill, which originally prohibited the recognition of foreign law, such as Islamic Sharia law, in family courts, was overhauled Tuesday with little public notice and converted into an omnibus bill titled the Family, Faith and Freedom Protection Act by adding the contents of various anti-abortion legislation pending in the General Assembly.
Senators voted 29-12 to approve House Bill 695, which now returns to the House for a final vote on the changes…
It’s also unclear whether Gov. Pat McCrory would veto the bill or allow it to become law without his signature. He has said he opposes new restrictions on abortion in North Carolina. Republicans have large enough majorities in both the House and Senate to override a veto.
Senate Democrats criticized the bill during nearly two hours of debate Wednesday morning, offering amendments that were quickly defeated and questioning the need to interfere with what they said is a private medical matter.
Mostly, however, they were incensed that the bill was pushed through with little advance notice during the July 4th holiday week.
This is just no way to move major legislation in a democracy. Sure, the NC Senate clearly has the votes, but this is not how democracy should work. Many Republicans claimed that Democrats used to do stuff like this. You know what? They did. And it was wrong then, too. Kudos to McCrory on this point:
The hasty process clearly displeased McCrory, however.
“When the Democrats were in power, this is the way they did business. It was not right then and it is not right now,” the governor said in a statement. “Regardless of what party is in charge or what important issue is being discussed, the process must be appropriate and thorough.”
What just kills me, though, is Republican so transparently pretending that they are doing this because they care about women’s health. That is decidedly not the case. I just wish they would flat-out admit that they are doing this to limit abortion as an end-run around settled Constitutional law.
Under the legislation, abortion clinics would have to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers. Abortion providers also would have to be present with the patient throughout the procedure, whether surgical or drug-induced. Also, abortion clinics would have to have “transfer agreements” with nearby hospitals, which are roughly equivalent to the hospital granting the physicians admitting privileges.
“We’re not here today taking away the rights of women. What we’re taking away is the rights of an industry to have substandard conditions,” said Sen. Warren Daniel, R-Burke.
Only one of the 36 abortion clinics now in North Carolina would be able to meet the new requirements, according to advocates. A similar law in Mississippi closed every abortion clinic in that state except one, and its fate is being settled in federal court.
It’s okay with me that Republicans want fewer abortions. Heck, I’d like fewer abortions. But the Supreme Court has held for 40 years now that a woman has a Constitutional right for an abortion early in her pregnancy and this is very clearly an attempt to limit that Constitutional right without saying so.
Imagine what all these same legislators would say about a bill that required all gun owners to keep their guns locked up in their home and to use trigger locks. Or heck, that they could only be sold in stores that met certain expensive parameters.
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