Ban on race and Down syndrome abortions clears NC legislature
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
North Carolina’s Republican-majority legislature passed a proposal to ban race and Down syndrome-selective abortions Thursday, saying the matter is a civil rights and eugenics issue.
The bill now goes to Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, who is likely to veto it.
A federal appeals court recently upheld a similar law in Ohio, but numerous other courts across the country have blocked similar bans.
North Carolina already bans doctors from providing abortions if the parent is seeking one because of the fetus’s sex, but the bill would expand that to include race and disability and newly require physicians and abortion providers to collect data about the procedure and send it to the state.
House Bill 453 passed the Senate on Thursday on a vote of 27 to 20.
The bill, which is opposed by the North Carolina Medical Society and the North Carolina Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, does not include criminal penalties for providers who fail to confirm that a parent is not seeking abortion because of the fetus’s sex, race or possible Down syndrome diagnosis.
Conservative lawmakers have moved to advance the legislation despite its likely demise when it reaches Cooper’s desk, likely in part because it helps Republicans score political points among its party’s base ahead of the 2022 election.
The push to pass the legislation also comes as the U.S. Supreme Court, with its new 6-3 conservative majority, prepares to review a restrictive Mississippi abortion law. Conservatives hope that review will mean the overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion case, paving the way for further abortion restrictions across the country.
In a debate much shorter than those preceding other abortion bills, Sen. Joyce Krawiec, a Republican from Kernersville, urged her colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support the legislation because it would prevent discrimination.
“This is eugenics in its worst form,” Krawiec said. “This bill will eliminate that atrocity.”
Democratic lawmakers pushed back on that notion, saying the bill restricts access to abortion under the “disguise of racial justice.”
“If the legislature were genuinely concerned about racial justice and healthy outcomes for Black and brown people, they would advocate for bills that actually encouraged the well-being of historically oppressed people,” said Sen. Gladys Robinson, a Democrat from Greensboro.
To override Cooper’s expected veto, two-thirds of each chamber would have to vote in favor of doing so. Republicans would need some Democratic support in both chambers to do this. Conservatives framing of the legislation as a eugenics issue could garner more support from Democrats, but its unclear if it will be enough to override a veto.
Under the Dome
On The News & Observer's Under the Dome podcast, we’re unpacking legislation and issues that matter, keeping you updated on what’s happening in North Carolina politics twice a week on Monday and Friday mornings. Check us out here and sign up for our weekly Under the Dome newsletter for more political news.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Pandora, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Megaphone or wherever you get your podcasts.
