North Carolina, Raleigh – North Carolina is the fourth state in the American nation where women face the greatest legal restrictions to abort.
Legislation passed over the past decade has limited the practice in the state.
Despite being a constitutional right, states can regulate the termination of pregnancies.
In North Carolina, for example, women who make the decision to have an abortion are required to first participate in a session with therapists. Also, they must wait 72 hours to schedule a medical consultation with a specialist before performing the procedure.
Anti-abortion projects
The current state legal framework is already restrictive, however, at least two new anti-abortion bills are being processed in the General Assembly.
These initiatives, introduced by Republican lawmakers, are intended to prohibit or further limit the practice in all one hundred North Carolina counties.
It’s about the projects HB 31, “Heartbeat Detected / Abortion Prohibited,” presented January 28; and the HB 158, “Amendment to the Constitution / Life at the time of fertilization”, introduced on February 24.
HB 31 was signed by the representatives Keith Kidwell (Beaufort), Bobby Hanig (Currituck), George Cleveland (Onslow) y Carson Smith (Columbus), while HB 158 was signed by the representatives Larry G. Pittman (Cabarrus) and Mark Brody (Anson).
Criminalize abortion
House Bill 158 proposes to completely ban and criminalize the practice of abortion in North Carolina.
This would be carried out by holding a referendum or popular consultation during the 2022 general elections.
The project proposes an amendment to the North Carolina Constitution to state, as an indisputable scientific fact, that “a different and separate human life begins at the moment of fertilization.”
Consequently, all human life must be recognized by the State “as an individual person, with the right to the protection of state laws from the moment of fertilization until natural death.”
The text declares that the State has the interest and the duty to defend innocent people from “the intentional destruction of their lives and to punish those who take the lives of people, born or unborn.”
Criminal liability
HB 158 states that any person who “seeks to destroy the life of another person, by any means, at any stage of life, or who succeeds in doing so, is liable for attempted murder or murder in the first degree.”
Anyone, the project notes, has the right to defend their own life or the life of another person, including through the use of deadly force if necessary, from willful destruction by another person.
Heartbeat
Today, abortion can be practiced legally during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy (General Statute 14-45.1), however, the file HB 31 proposes to penalize the practice from the moment a “heartbeat” can be detected.
The proposed law defines detectable human heartbeat as “embryonic or fetal cardiac activity or the constant and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the heart within the gestational sac.”
“Advising, procuring, or causing an abortion before a qualified state licensed physician determines that the fetus has a detectable human heartbeat is not illegal if performed by a qualified state licensed physician or Department of Health certified clinic. and Human Services as a suitable facility, ”the project notes.
The file is processed in the Health Committee of the House of Representatives.
Unconstitutional projects
Susanna Birdsong, legal counsel for Planned Parenthood, told Latin Link NC that the bills promoted by the Republican bloc are unconstitutional or excessively prohibitive.
Birdsong, recalled that Governor Roy Cooper vetoed another anti-abortion bill proposed by Republican lawmakers in 2019.
The SB 359, “Born alive” would require doctors and nurses to care for live born babies during a late failed abortion, otherwise they would face penalties.
Cooper vetoed the bill, arguing that “laws already protect newborn babies.”
In addition, he called it “unnecessary interference” between doctors and their patients.
“This unnecessary legislation would criminalize physicians and other health care providers for a practice that simply does not exist,” Cooper said at the time.
Hard access
For Planned Parenthood, North Carolina is one of the states with the highest restrictions for women who choose to have an abortion.
Birdsong works to “defend and guarantee access to health services.” Part of his job is to monitor the progress of anti-abortion projects in the General Assembly.
“I don’t see any (anti-abortion bills) moving forward, but it’s still too early. We are expecting. We may see more anti-abortion projects. It is difficult to know which one (Republican legislators) will choose to move forward, but we can anticipate that at least one will, ”stated the legal advisor.
With control of the Republican bloc in both houses, Birdsong is targeting the governor and Democratic lawmakers as the only option to avoid further restrictions and limitations.
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