North Carolina governor slams state GOP for overriding veto of their 12-week abortion ban

Republicans held firm, overriding Cooper’s veto days later.

“Not a single Republican stepped in,” Cooper told Capehart. “Not a single Republican has delivered on their campaign promise to protect women’s reproductive freedom as they announced. And therefore, you have unified Republicans who are all in on an attack on women’s reproductive freedom.

The new law, which is set to go into effect July 1, bans most abortions in North Carolina at 12 weeks, a sharp drop from the 20-week ban currently in effect across the state. Republicans have sought to characterize the measure as moderate, with extensions in place for rape or incest to 20 weeks and 24 weeks for “life-limiting fetal abnormality”. The new law is not as restrictive as abortion measures recently passed in Florida or South Carolina.

But Cooper was unswayed, arguing that it only took “42 hours for Republicans in his state to turn back time 50 years.” The issue, he said, would be “front and center” in the 2024 election.

“In North Carolina, I said to the president, I believe 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 supermajority in the North Carolina legislature.”