Republicans fail to pass ‘unnecessary’ anti-abortion bill after North Carolina governor’s veto

Governor accuses lawmakers of proposing divisive bill for 'political purposes'

Republicans in North Carolina failed on Wednesday to overturn a veto of a bill that would have made it a crime to not treat “any infant born alive after an abortion.”

Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, rejected the bill days after it passed both Republican-held chambers of the state legislature in April, noting then that the measure was an “unnecessary interference between doctors and their patients” and would have criminalised a “practice that simply does not exist.”

Doctors are already held to a 2002 federal law that protects foetuses that survive abortions.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr Cooper reiterated his position that the bill, the so-called Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act, was redundant.

“It’s important to protect the lives of all children, and laws already exist to protect newborn babies,” Mr Cooper said.

He added: “Instead of passing unnecessary legislation for political purposes, we need to move on from divisive social issues and focus on the needs of North Carolina families: education, health care and good-paying jobs.”

The override effort in the North Carolina House failed after a 67-53 vote, just short of the three-fifths majority needed to overturn Mr Cooper’s veto. The state Senate voted in April to override the governor.

The failure to overturn Mr Cooper’s veto was among the most dramatic consequences of Democratic legislative victories in North Carolina last November, which broke Republican supermajorities in both chambers.

Those who supported Senate Bill 359 said the measure was an important check on potential infanticide. The legislation stated that “if an abortion results in the live birth of an infant, the infant is a legal person” and entitled to protection under North Carolina law.

Penalties for not providing care after a failed abortion would have included a fine of up to $250,000 (£196,965) and potential prosecution under the state’s murder statutes.

The office of House speaker Tim Moore said in a statement issued on Wednesday that the failed override effort was the “final vote” on the matter.

Mr Moore added that Democrats had “successfully prevented a duty of care for all living, breathing North Carolinians born alive in the state.”

Democrats, in return, accused Mr Moore of unsavoury hardball tactics, accusing him of scheduling the vote at a time when one Democratic lawmaker was recovering from a mastectomy.

The New York Times