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Gov. Roy Cooper: 'Governors are the last line of defense' on states' abortion laws

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and eight other Democratic governors participated in a call Friday with President Joe Biden about reproductive rights.

Posted Updated

By
Mark Bergin
, WRAL senior multiplatform producer

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last month to reverse Roe v. Wade was devastating and it’s now incumbent upon state governments to protect reproductive rights, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Friday during a call with President Joe Biden and eight other Democratic governors.

“That Constitutional right that women have relied on for [nearly] five decades has been ripped away,” Cooper said. “For now, at least, where you live will determine your rights. So, for now, it’s up to the states to determine whether women can get reproductive health care, and in North Carolina, they still can.”

Friday’s virtual meeting comes on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v. Wade, leaving it to individual states to determine their own abortion laws.

North Carolina has fewer abortion restrictions than many other Southern states. It allows abortions during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy and after the 20th week of pregnancy when certain medical emergencies arise.

Cooper said the state has already seen an influx of patients for care. He said Planned Parenthood, the nonprofit reproductive health care group, told him that about one-third of women who visited the organization in recent days in North Carolina have been from other states. Cooper also wants to protect women’s ability to travel to North Carolina.

Cooper said he’s looking at executive orders to possibly protect women who want to get abortion care to have safe access to clinics.

“Right now, governors are the last line of defense, and they’re also the first chance at progress,” Cooper said.

Biden said he spoke with Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday to make sure the federal government works to prevent obstructing women traveling to other states and their access to medicine.

North Carolina’s abortion laws can only be changed if the state General Assembly changes state statutes and the governor signs that legislation into law—or if a gubernatorial veto is overridden. However, state lawmakers are in a stalemate. Republicans have a majority in the legislature, but don’t have enough members to override vetoes from Cooper.

After the high court’s decision last month, top Republicans said they’d wait until their legislative session next January to consider new abortion laws. If the GOP picks up two additional seats in the senate and three more seats in the House, they’ll gain the supermajority they need to fast-track their agenda.

North Carolina’s Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

For now, Cooper said he would to hold the line “to protect women’s reproductive freedom in our state.”

These 13 U.S. states have automatically banned abortion in the first and second trimester.

Other governors on the call included: Daniel McKee of Rhode Island; Jay Inslee of Washington; Kate Brown of Oregon; J.B. Pritzker of Illinois; Jared Polis of Colorado; Ned Lamont of Connecticut; Kathy Hochul of New York; and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico.

Hochul said multiple generations of her family have fought for women’s reproductive rights, including her mother, herself, her daughter and her granddaughter.

“I didn’t think we would have to fight this battle for [my granddaughter’s] generation as well, but apparently, we do, but we are ready to take on that fight,” Hochul said.

Grisham echoed the sentiments of the others on the call:

“We are, in fact, that brick wall against this horrific Supreme Court decision.”

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