Republicans stood their ground, overriding Cooper’s veto days later.
“Not a single Republican stepped forward,” Cooper told Capehart. “Not a single Republican followed through on a campaign promise to protect women’s reproductive freedom like they said they would. And thus, he has unified the Republicans who are all together in an assault on women’s reproductive freedom.»
The new law, It will enter into force on July 1., bans most abortions in North Carolina at 12 weeks, a sharp decrease from the 20-week ban currently in effect statewide. Republicans have tried to present the measure as moderate, with extensions in the case of rape or incest at 20 weeks and 24 weeks in the case of a “life-limiting fetal abnormality”.” The new law is not as restrictive as abortion measures recently passed in Florida or South Carolina.
But Cooper wasn’t swayed, arguing that it took Republicans in his state just «42 hours to turn back the clock 50 years.» The issue, he said, would be «front and center» in the 2024 election.
“In North Carolina, I told the president, I think we can win North Carolina for him,” Cooper said. “We will elect a new Democratic governor to take office in January 2025. And we will work hard to break the vast majority in the North Carolina legislature.”