North Carolina Governor Signs Restrictive Abortion Bill Into Law

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RALEIGH, N.C. – Gov. Pat McCrory signed a bill into law that authorizes severe and medically unnecessary restrictions on women’s health clinics that provide abortions. The law, which was included at the last minute as an amendment to a motorcycle safety bill, could block health centers from providing safe and legal abortion care. Doctors, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, oppose the bill because it interferes with the patient-physician relationship and harms the health of North Carolina women.

Thousands of North Carolinians contacted Gov. McCrory asking him to veto and more than one hundred people were arrested as they protested the bill this week. A recent poll shows that the governor’s approval rating plummeted 15 percentage points after he indicated he would allow this bill to become law.

“It is incredibly disappointing that Gov. McCrory has broken his campaign promise and signed an extreme law that will severely restrict abortion access and comprehensive health care for countless North Carolina women,” said Sarah Preston, policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina. “Measures such as these, which can have a terribly detrimental impact on women’s access to much-needed health care, should not be rushed through the legislature with little opportunity for meaningful public input, as this one was.”

“Extremists pushed this new North Carolina law as part of an orchestrated, nationwide effort to outlaw abortion, clinic by clinic, state by state,” said Jennifer Dalven, director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. “But while some politicians continue to try to take away our right to make our own personal and private medical decisions, people in North Carolina and across the country are taking note and making noise. The message to our elected representatives has been loud and clear: abortion should stay safe and legal and politics should not block a woman’s ability to get the health care she needs.”