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Cooper begins pressure tour, hoping to defend veto on abortion bill

The governor says he'll veto new abortion restrictions, but Republicans have a veto-proof majority in both houses of the General Assembly.
Posted 2023-05-09T16:15:15+00:00 - Updated 2023-05-10T15:48:56+00:00
Gov. Cooper puts pressure on GOP lawmakers to flip abortion vote

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper began a series of roundtable discussions Tuesday, traveling to swing districts represented by Republicans who made statements supporting existing abortion restrictions on the campaign trail — an effort to muster enough support to uphold his expected veto of new abortion restriction.

Republican lawmakers passed a bill Thursday that would ban many abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, instead of 20, as the law had been. It also has additional rules that could shut down many abortion clinics statewide. The complex, 47-page bill sped through the legislature gaining approval from both chambers less than 48 hours after being introduced.

On Tuesday in Mecklenburg County, Cooper sat flanked by medical professionals, the owner of an abortion clinic, a state lawmaker, and a woman who said she needed an abortion at age 14. Cooper, a Democrat, guided the conversation as they talked about details of the bill and how it might affect women who need to terminate their pregnancy.

“This has been disguised as something that is reasonable when it is not,” Cooper said in his opening remarks. “And when something is a reasonable compromise, you shouldn’t be afraid to have it discussed, and questions asked and amendments put forward.”

Cooper says he’ll veto the bill Saturday, but it may not hold. Republicans have a veto-proof majority in both houses of the General Assembly. He needs every single Democrat, and at least one Republican in the House or Senate, to vote to block the bill from becoming law. Republicans and Democrats alike, however, often vote the party line on veto overrides.

Cooper is pressuring four moderate Republicans in particular with the hopes of convincing one to vote against an override. He has called out Mecklenburg County Republican Reps. John Bradford and Tricia Cotham, and he has also singled out two New Hanover County Republican legislators: Rep. Ted Davis and Sen. Michael Lee. Cooper is scheduled to travel to their area later this week. Bradford, Davis and Lee were, and remain, Republicans who represent some of the most competitive districts in the state.

In a news release issued Monday, Cooper's office highlighted previous statements from the Republicans suggesting that they previously supported existing laws or opposed laws that would ban abortions in the first trimester.

"We're going to make sure that people understand during this week what is in this legislation," Cooper said at the roundtable on Tuesday. "And what we want them to do is to ask Republican legislators who have promised to protect women's reproductive freedom to keep those promises."

Lee had previously promised not to vote on an abortion ban that also contained no exceptions for situations like rape, incest or to save the mother’s life; this bill has all three — and Lee was one of the lead authors of the bill.

"I believe a woman should have the right to choose an abortion in the first trimester (3 months) with exceptions after that point for rape, incest, health of the mother and viability of the fetus," Lee said Tuesday, pointing to a September opinion article he wrote, which was published in the (Wilmington) StarNews newspaper, which stated that position. "Senate Bill 20 follows what I wrote," he said.

"As for Roy Cooper," Lee added, "he lied about my position on this issue during the campaign and he is doing it again."

Davis declined to comment on Tuesday. Bradford and Cotham didn’t respond to requests for comment.

"By calling out specific Republicans in swing districts, Governor Cooper seems to believe he can pressure these Republican members into voting his way, just as he has bullied members of his own party," Demi Dowdy, a spokeswoman for Speaker of the House Tim Moore. "The Speaker has always encouraged each of our members to vote their conscience on behalf of their constituents, and he is confident they will continue to do just that. We will ultimately override the governor’s veto of SB 20 when the time comes."

Asked to respond, Cooper spokesman Jordan Monaghan said in a statement: "We had a roundtable with the Governor, advocates and medical professionals about the actual impacts of this legislation today and I would direct you to comments from the event."

Possible support, expected resistance

Bradford, Cotham and Lee appear, at least for now, as long-shots to uphold Cooper’s veto. The governor’s potential best shot is Davis, who promised in his 2022 campaign that he would not vote to lower the state’s abortion limit below 20 weeks, even if GOP House Speaker Tim Moore pressured him to. “The Speaker does not tell me what to do,” Davis said at a 2022 debate in Wilmington, adding: “I’m going to vote to keep it just the way it is.”

Davis kept to his word last week when the House voted to pass the abortion bill. He was present for other votes that day but conspicuously absent when the abortion vote was called. So while he didn’t vote against it, he was the only Republican not to vote for it.

If he walks again when it comes up for a veto override, the bill would fail to become law — if every Democrat votes to uphold Cooper’s veto.

Bradford said in his 2022 campaign that he had "no intentions...to make the weeks more restrictive." In a statement Friday, he indicated he wasn’t inclined to support Cooper’s veto, citing what he described as a series of snubs from the governor.

Cotham’s vote has been of particular interest to Democrats. She ran in Mecklenburg as a Democrat, winning the seat last year in her left-leaning district. Cotham, long an abortion rights advocate, abruptly changed parties last month, saying she had become disillusioned with the Democratic Party and that she felt bullied by Cooper and other Democrats. The move delivered the GOP the seat it needed to hold a veto-proof majority in the full legislature.

Her vote in favor of the abortion bill last week — months after she co-sponsored a bill to expand abortion access — indicates she’s unlikely to reverse course yet again and help Cooper block it from becoming law.

"We applaud the Republican majority for passing this reasonable legislation to further protect life and help mothers in NC," North Carolina GOP spokesman Jeff Moore said in a statement. "Despite the governor's rhetoric, this proposal is well within the mainstream of public opinion and we look forward to an override of his promised veto."

Bill details

The bill passed last week represents a compromise in a GOP caucus that has wide ranging views on the issue, including members favoring everything from a full abortion ban to keeping the laws the same.

Supporters of the bill say abortions through the second trimester of a woman's pregnancy are unacceptable and that this bill will save lives. Cooper and other opponents call the bill dangerous.

The bill takes North Carolina's current ban on abortions after 20 weeks — with exceptions for medical emergencies — and moves that to the 12 week mark. The ban would kick in later in cases of rape or incest (20 weeks) or life-limiting fetal abnormalities (24 weeks). Abortion would stay legal any time a doctor declares a medical emergency.

Other aspects of the bill would make it more difficult for women, and particularly poor women, to get an abortion at any time. A phone consultation required by current law at least 72-hours before an abortion would have to be held in person under Senate Bill 20, and the bill also adds a post-abortion doctor's appointment as well.

The spaced-out appointments will be difficult to keep, Democrats have argued, for women with full-time jobs, women with other children to care for and women who don't have money for travel. There are only 14 abortion clinics in North Carolina, located in nine of the state's 100 counties.

Abortions must be performed at a clinic or a hospital, and Democratic lawmakers said 20 North Carolina counties don't have a hospital.

The bill also calls for new clinic licensing rules for clinics. There's some dispute just what the bill requires here, but Planned Parenthood, which operates six of the state's 14 clinics, has said none of its facilities meet the expected new regulations and would either have to close or upgrade at unknown costs.

Doctors groups have also complained about new paperwork and reporting requirements in the bill, which they say are not medically necessary.

WRAL State Government Reporters Travis Fain, Will Doran and Paul Specht contributed to this article.

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