NC House fails to block Cooper’s veto on ‘born alive’ abortion bill

NC House fails to block Cooper’s veto on ‘born alive’ abortion bill




BY PAUL A. SPECHT, DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN, AND ELIZABETH THOMPSON
8 hrs ago






RALEIGH — North Carolina lawmakers Wednesday failed to block Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto on a bill that would bring new penalties for medical professionals who allow abortion survivors to die.
ASSOCIATED PRESS North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper speaks with reporters after testifying before the House Natural Resources Committee hearing on climate change on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Abortion opponents and women’s rights advocates watched from the gallery on Wednesday as House Speaker Tim Moore called a vote on Senate Bill 359, also known as the “Born Alive Abortion Survivors Act.” Lawmakers debated for more than an hour before voting 67 in support and 53 against, meaning the effort failed to get the supermajority needed to override Cooper.



The bill would require medical professionals to provide life-saving care specifically to infants who survive an abortion and to report instances of such births. Medical professionals and hospital employees who don’t comply with the law could face felony charges, prison time and up to $250,000 in fines.

The GOP-controlled NC House and Senate already approved the bill, but it was later vetoed by the Democratic governor. The Senate voted last month to override him, and the House needed 60 percent of its members to also support an override to make the bill law.

The NC bill is one of several pieces of abortion-related legislation being considered across the country. Unlike proposals in other states such as Alabama and Louisiana, though, North Carolina’s proposed law doesn’t tighten the window for legal abortion.

Still, the bill is controversial.

Democrats have generally opposed the bill on grounds that it would bring more bureaucracy into complicated medical situations and may discourage abortions that are medically necessary. Republicans, meanwhile, believe more should be done to prevent infant deaths and hold doctors accountable.

A FULL GALLERY

Advocates from both sides of the aisle lined-up outside the NC House chamber about 30 minutes before lawmakers convened.

One of them was Jill Coward, state director for the Concerned Women for America from Union County. Coward and other bill supporters wore blue shirts and stickers.

“It just makes sense if a baby is born we should it treat it no differently than we would a normal baby,” Coward said.

Kelsea McLain, community outreach director for the Women’s Choice abortion care provider for the Raleigh area, lined up to sit on the other side of the gallery. McLain said she’s worried that the bill will change the climate for abortion providers.

“We’re just here to make sure folks know that this a bad bill, it’s not a bill based in a need, it’s a bill based in stigma and not science,” McLain said. “This is just a part of a trend nationwide of attacks on abortion access. While some of them definitely have the goal in criminalizing care, it again is rooted on the idea that abortion is inherently bad and the providers of that care are bad people when it’s really not the reality that we’re up against.”

DEBATE

Rep. Julie von Haefen, a Wake County Democrat, agrees with her. She said in an interview before the vote Wednesday she hoped Democrats all “stand with the governor.”

“I think it’s an unnecessary bill designed to threaten and scare doctors,” von Haefen said. “It’s also political, to make us out as against babies and mothers, which is not the case,” she said.

“We already have laws in place that cover this,” Rep. Allison Dahle, another Wake Democrat, said in an interview Wednesday morning. “I just don’t believe there’s any foundation for it.”

Dahle said it is an issue that is really hard to talk about, and should not be a political issue.

“I think this is an issue that (House members) choose not to discuss outside the chamber. On (the) whole, I believe both sides of the chamber want to work together. This is a divisive issue we’re not going to agree on,” Dahle said.

During the Senate debate Wednesday, Rep. Keith Kidwell, a Republican who wanted to override the governor’s veto, said it wasn’t a religious, political or societal issue.

The issue is “whether the great state of North Carolina will sanction the murder of a baby. Do you want to wear that banner today?” Kidwell said to fellow lawmakers.

‘NOT ABOUT ABORTION’

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Republicans Moore, Sen. Joyce Krawiec and Rep. Pat McElraft all said the bill is “not about abortion.”

“This is about taking care of infants who have survived abortion,” Krawiec said.

McElraft and Moore repeated similar comments on the Senate floor during debate, saying it was about babies, not abortion.

“This is about the baby. God help us if we don’t override this veto,” McElraft said.

Two anti-abortion advocates who spoke at the press conference, Gianna Jessen and Claire Culwell, said they survived abortions.

Claire Culwell, 31, was born at 40 weeks, but her twin was aborted when their 13-year-old birth mother was 20 weeks pregnant with them, she said.

“We as survivors are often left out. Our stories were not imaginary. These were real circumstance we were born under,” Culwell said.

Culwell told The News & Observer in an interview after the event that Moore had asked her to come speak, and that she has been following state legislative action around “born alive” bills. She said the bill would hold doctors accountable through its penalties and reporting requirements.

Culwell said that she found out about the circumstances of her birth when she met her birth mother 10 years ago. Culwell is the mother of a 6-year-old girl.

“My daughter would not be here if that abortion was successful,” Culwell said.

Jessen and Culwell were in the gallery during the debate and recognized by Moore.

Some Republicans arguing for the override invoked God.

“If doctors don’t do anything wrong, they cannot have any consequences from this bill. Vote your conscience. May God put it upon your heart to do what’s right,” McElraft said.

Democratic Rep. Deb Butler called the bill incendiary.

“Anyone I have ever spoken to on this issue wants abortions to be safe, legal, available and rare,” Butler said. She said she didn’t want a doctor “to worry [more] about her own legal jeopardy than care of her patient.”

Moore responded during the news conference to criticism that the bill is unnecessary because of existing laws.

“If it’s unnecessary, then what’s the harm?” Moore said.

THE VOTE

State laws allow for the House to wait until the end of next year’s legislative session to vote on an override. Legislative leaders have done this in the past while waiting for minds to change or for override opponents to be absent — or both. This stalling tactic is known as putting a bill in the “veto garage.”

But last week, Moore put a vote on the calendar after some Democrats accused him of exploiting a tough situation for Democratic Rep. Sydney Batch of Wake County, who’s fighting cancer.

Rep. Marcia Morey, a Durham Democrat, said Republican leadership is in total control, calling that a real failure of democracy.

“One party is all pawns on a chess board, and one is all queens,” Morey said.

The bill’s sponsors believed they had secured “their best case scenario,” Moore spokesman Joseph Kyzer told the N&O last week.

But on Tuesday, Cooper said he believed his veto would be upheld.

“We need to move on from these divisive social and political issues,” Cooper said in a brief news conference after a Council of State meeting, “and talk about the real issues facing the people of North Carolina: education, health care, bringing good paying jobs, (and) clean air and water.”



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