Two years after Dobbs, North Carolina Republicans, led by their gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson, are showing the dire consequences of making reproductive freedom a “states issue.”
Just last summer, the GOP-led legislature overrode the governor’s veto of a 12-week abortion ban. But Robinson, who proclaimed Dobbs gave “control over abortion back to the states – where it rightfully belongs,” has made clear the legislature did not go far enough. In February of this year, he agreed that life needs to be protected from the moment of conception, and said, in part:
“We’ve got it down to 12 weeks. The next goal is to get it down to 6, and then just keep moving from there…”
The state party is certainly taking their cues from the most extreme beliefs Robinson has espoused, as their new party platform states their support for a total ban on abortion.
“We support the right of medical professionals to refuse to participate in abortions. We support the right of pharmacists to refuse to dispense abortion-inducing drugs.”
“We support the right of all institutions, including hospitals and schools, to refuse to provide contraceptive, abortion, or other services and procedures inconsistent with their religious tenets.”
“We oppose human cloning and the destruction of human embryos..”
Since Dobbs, states are the last line of defense in the fight for reproductive freedom, and states with Republican majorities in their legislatures, like North Carolina, are taking their anti-reproductive freedom work to new extremes.
The prospect of a Robinson governorship, buttressed by a possible GOP attorney general and Life at Conception Act co-sponsor Dan Bishop, means that North Carolinians could be up against a Republican apparatus that will strive to ban nearly all abortion in North Carolina.
“Mark Robinson has told voters he believes that, even if someone has been pregnant for only 24 hours, getting an abortion would make them a murderer,” said American Bridge spokesperson Philip Shulman. “Robinson and the entire North Carolina GOP is complicit in trying to take away North Carolinians reproductive freedoms, and this will only further motivate voters to turn out against the Republican Party’s archaic agenda.”
Published: Jun 24, 2024