Cotham defended abortion rights. Will she now help GOP reduce access?

North Carolina remains one of few Southern states to allow abortions. But some Democrats now fear that the surprise defection of one of their own could cause that to change.

The chair of the state Democratic Party, Anderson Clayton, called on Cotham to resign Wednesday. But she also urged Cotham, if she doesn’t resign, to at least stick to her longtime pro-abortion-rights beliefs.

“I want to make sure that she’s upholding her promise,” Clayton said, of “ensuring that abortion remains safe and protected in our state.”

Cotham campaigned on protecting abortion rights in 2022 and just months ago co-sponsored a bill that would actually expand abortion access in North Carolina.

Back in 2015, she had even used the story of her own abortion to argue against what are now the state’s current abortion laws. Republican legislators at the time responded by calling her a “baby killer,” making obscene hand gestures and swerving a car at her when she was walking near the legislature, Cotham told Time Magazine at the time.

But now, Cotham said Wednesday, it’s bullying from Democrats that’s driving her to switch parties and join the GOP. She took several years off from politics before returning to office in the 2022 elections and felt disrespected, she said, when Democratic leadership grouped her with freshman lawmakers instead of recognizing her seniority from the last time she had served.

'Considered a traitor': NC Rep. Tricia Cotham leaves Democrats for GOP

And when she voted with Republicans on controversial bills on guns and immigration, she said, other Democratic women spread rumors about her, criticized her hair and otherwise made her feel like a “traitor.” Republican Sen. Vickie Sawyer backed Cotham up, saying it was the worst bullying she had seen since middle school.

“If you don't do exactly what the Democrats want you to do,” Cotham said at a Wednesday press conference at GOP headquarters, “they will try to bully you and will try to cast you aside.”

She said her views hadn’t changed; she just felt the Democratic Party was now unrecognizable from the party she once supported.

The GOP has been working on an abortion restriction bill, although leaders have been tight-lipped as to what exact details they’re considering. Asked directly if she would back a Republican plan to restrict abortion if one gets introduced, Cotham declined to answer.House Speaker Tim Moore said that, in general, he is sure he and Cotham won’t agree on everything even with her now joining his caucus.

“You know what? That’ll be fine,” Moore said.

The party change was especially jarring for Democrats since Cotham ran on a heavily progressive platform in the November elections and won a commanding 60% of the vote in her deep-blue district. Her mother is a prominent Democratic leader in local Mecklenburg County politics and even has the same name. And the younger Cotham had also served for nearly a decade in the legislature previously before taking several years off, before her 2022 return to office.

Clayton said Cotham needs to now act, through her votes, to make sure the people who voted for her aren’t completely duped.

“Reproductive freedoms are on the line,” she said. “Our public schools are on the line. LGBTQ rights are on the line. Voting rights are on the line."