North Raleigh Today

Gov. Roy Cooper recently vetoed a bill that would ban the majority of abortions after the 10th week of pregnancy, during a rally held during Mother’s Day Weekend.

According to his website, the bill was passed earlier this month by the legislature, prompting Cooper to organize a roundtable discussion to evaluate possible consequences of the bill. According to PJ Media, the bill included provisions like the prohibition of medication abortions after 10 weeks. There is also a requirement for three in-person appointments, spaced over several days, for individuals seeking a medication abortion, as well as other measures. The veto is anticipated to be overturned by Republican lawmakers.

“I've spent the week meeting with doctors and clinic operators who all agree that this dangerous ban would make abortion unavailable to many women and could put their lives at risk," Cooper said, according to a press release. “Several Republican legislators campaigned on the promise to protect women’s reproductive health and we want North Carolinians to ask that they keep that promise.”

N.C. Values Coalition, a nonprofit established in 2011 that advocates for family and religious freedom, strongly opposes abortion, according to their website. The group's executive director, Tami Fitzgerald, took to social media to oppose Cooper’s veto. 

“It’s their identity. A culture of death,” Fitzgerald tweeted on May 13.

Fitzgerald also released a statement on the N.C. Values Coalition website, saying that Cooper is vetoing legislation completely against motherhood. 

“Governor Cooper chose Mother’s Day weekend to veto legislation and rally against everything that encompasses motherhood — birth, growing biological and adoptive families, and care for babies," said Fitzgerald, according to NC Values Coalition. "His actions would crush provisions to give women more opportunities to choose life, improve safety standards of clinics, and stop the barbaric painful practice of partial birth abortion. Governor Cooper’s bullish tactics of traveling to districts to pressure Republicans in sustaining his veto are a fool’s errand. We stand by Republicans and encourage them to stay strong against bullying and intimidation by a Governor who doesn’t value life, motherhood, or women in crisis.”