CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – For months, North Carolina lawmakers have been shying away from introducing new abortion legislation.
For the first time since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a bill is in the mix that would completely ban abortion.
Three Republicans, representatives Keith Kidwell, Ben Moss, and Edward Goodwin, filed House bill 533, the Human Life Protection Act.
The bill bans abortion from the moment of fertilization. It currently has no co-sponsors.
Jillian Riley, with Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, is highly concerned about this bill’s impact on N.C.
“This is a total ban,” Riley said. “Either way, how you take it, we know that the goal of the anti-abortion movement is to ban abortion in total throughout the state of North Carolina and throughout the country. That’s really what this bill does.”
The only exception in the Human Life Protection Act is if the mother’s life is at risk for various medical reasons, including ectopic pregnancy. The bill also says doctors could face felony charges if they commit any action resulting in the death of an unborn child.
“North Carolina is a critical access point for abortion care across the southeast,” Riley said. “It’s incredibly important that we maintain access so that people in North Carolina and people who come into North Carolina are able to access care; if this ban or any other ban that were to restrict abortion access in the state, it would have devastating impacts for everyone across the state and for people coming into the state.”
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N.C. has the highest rate in the country of women traveling to another state to get the procedure done.
QCN reached out to all three bill sponsors, and none were available for interviews.
QCN also reached out to a couple of Republican representatives who weren’t directly involved and asked them what they thought, to which they responded:
“No comment.”
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