Abortion opponents rally in Raleigh: ‘I would like to see it totally abolished.’
A year after the North Carolina General Assembly moved up the state ban on abortions from 20 to 12 weeks, several hundred abortion opponents held their annual rally and march in downtown Raleigh on Saturday, but they were not in a celebratory mood.
The speeches, chants and signs showed they wanted lawmakers to go much further.
“What we were able to pass is just a down payment,” Rep. Neal Jackson, a Randolph County Republican and Baptist pastor, told the crowd assembled at Halifax Mall. “We are going to continue the fight for every child because every child has a right to life.”
The landscape on abortion changed dramatically in 2022 with the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision by the court that legalized abortion, throwing the regulatory authority to the states. Since then, many states with Republican legislatures have placed stricter limits on abortion.
But North Carolina’s ban, which allows for exceptions in cases of rape, incest or risk to the mother’s life, still allows roughly 90% of all abortions to continue, said Bill Pincus, a retired doctor who is president of N.C. Right to Life.
He is pushing for a ban from inception except in cases when the mother’s life is at risk. He also said he is not against victims of rape and incest seeking an abortion, though he views that as the baby being punished for the crimes of the father.
North Carolina’s 12-week ban has drawn outcry from advocates for a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion. They held a news conference two days earlier to mark the one-year anniversary of the bill’s passage, and were especially critical of the way legislative leaders put the bill to a vote without committee hearings or opportunities for amendments.
“That the anti-abortion leadership had to resort to deceptive tactics and secret caucus meetings and bargaining to pass Senate Bill 20 speaks volumes about what they think about their constituents and democracy here in North Carolina,” said Tara Romano, executive director of Pro-Choice North Carolina
They say the legislation has had a disproportionate impact on minorities, rural residents and those with low incomes.
Rally attendees said they appreciated the state legislature moving up the abortion ban, but they would like to see more.
“I would like to see at the federal level just for it to be totally abolished, just like we abolished slavery,” said Amy Gregor of Knightdale.
N.C. Right to Life had regularly held the rally in January, as did many other anti-abortion groups around the country, to coincide with the Roe v. Wade decision, but this year shifted it to the spring. It wasn’t intended to commemorate the year anniversary of the state abortion law, Pincus said.
He was looking to take advantage of better weather, but he feared the threat of thunderstorms drove down attendance. A much bigger crowd turned out last year on a bitter cold January day for a rally that included remarks from Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a staunch anti-abortionist who is running for governor. Robinson was not at Saturday’s rally.
