North Carolina’s political standoff over abortion is personified by two leaders: its Democratic governor, Mr. Cooper, and Tim Moore, the Republican speaker of the state House of Representatives.
Mr. Cooper, a former attorney general, wants to preserve the state’s current law. He has ordered additional protections, including preventing the extradition of anyone involved in performing an abortion that is legal in North Carolina.
But Republican dominance in the legislature means that veto power is Cooper’s most powerful tool. “Our law is restrictive enough in North Carolina right now,” Cooper said in an interview in February.
Public polls explain the political friction of the state: a recent Meredith College Survey of registered voters found that 57 percent of those surveyed wanted to preserve North Carolina’s current abortion law or expand it beyond the 20-week limit. About 35 percent of those polled supported a reversal of abortion access to 15 weeks or less.
Moore has said that a ban after 12 weeks, with a few exceptions, is more likely to “gather the necessary support to become law.”
Mr. Moore also said in a recent podcast that a swing Democrat, whom he declined to name, was willing to vote for a 12- or 13-week restriction. That crossover is potentially significant because House Republicans are one vote away from a large majority that would allow them to override a veto.
By now, even North Carolinians are feeling the pinch of the bans in neighboring states: When Maria, a 31-year-old living just outside of Asheville, found out she was unexpectedly pregnant in late June, she knew that a baby was more than she could carry. act. Maria, who did not want to reveal her full name because of her family’s opposition to abortion, was dealing with depression and, she says, other medical conditions.
She called the nearest abortion clinic, which is in Asheville. The wait, they told him, was two months. She then called two clinics in Charlotte, about a two-hour drive away. One never responded. The other said that he could take her the following month. She grabbed the appointment.