North Carolina Senate Reapproves Abortion Ban, Overriding Governor’s Veto

Republican legislators in North Carolina’s State Senate voted on Tuesday to advance a ban on most abortions after 12 weeks, overriding their Democratic governor’s recent veto of the new restrictions.

The bill now moves to the House chamber, where the support of every Republican would be required to complete the override and make the bill law. The House plans to vote later Tuesday night.

Republicans have a supermajority in both chambers of the legislature, giving them the power to overrule the governor if they can remain unified and muster enough votes. That is not assured in the House, where just one Republican vote against the override could stop the bill from becoming law.

The bill, SB 20, would restrict most abortions in North Carolina to 12 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest, certain fetal abnormalities and the life of the mother. It also mandates that detailed information about abortion procedures be reported to state regulators.

Republican strategists said SB 20 could prove to be an important litmus test of the political realities for Republicans, especially in purple states like North Carolina.

“Legislatively they’re on offense, but politically, they’re on defense, which is a bizarre place to be,” said Doug Heye, a former Republican National Committee communications director and North Carolina native who has consulted on three Republican U.S. Senate races there. “They’re feeling this issue out for what’s acceptable to the broader public.”

On Tuesday evening, Republicans defended the bill as a compromise on a difficult issue. “A restriction with exceptions is not a ban,” said Amy S. Galey, a Senate Republican.

On Monday, entities that do business throughout the state, including the online-rating company Yelp, the British manufacturer Lush Cosmetics, and the upscale Raleigh eatery Death & Taxes signed a petition opposing the bill along economic lines, arguing that it could damage North Carolina’s standing as a magnet for business.

“Nothing else you will do, could do, will erase the harm that this bill will do to women and girls — our health, our status in society, our ability to plan our families and our careers. It undermines our ability to trust that you care about what happens to us,” said Natasha Marcus, a Senate Democrat from the Charlotte area. “It is honestly hard for me to believe that my government would do this to me, to my daughters, to my friends, to their daughters.”

Tim Moore, the House speaker, said his chamber would take up the bill as early as Tuesday night.

The House vote was considered to be more of a tossup than the Senate’s, given that several House members had signaled during their last campaigns that they would not support rollbacks of abortion access.