The NC House and Senate have passed SB 20

This bill is an effective ban on abortion for the majority of women in North Carolina

 BUT,  the women that YOU helped elect to the NC Senate made their voices heard, on behalf of us all. 

Let's add to their chorus, shall we?

 
SENATOR BATCH

I stand before you today to express my deep concern and opposition to the proposed ban on abortion contained in SB 20. This bill is a direct attack on the fundamental rights and freedoms of women and a blatant attempt to control women’s bodies and their lives. Young women in North Carolina today have less rights than their mothers and their grandmothers had. This bill is an extreme and oppressive step backward for our society and one that will deny women the right to make decisions about their own healthcare and future. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, abortion is one of the safest medical procedures in the United States, with a complication rate of less than 0.5%. Abortion is healthcare and women should have the right to access safe and legal abortion care without unnecessary government restrictions or intrusion. Instead of working to eliminate barriers for women, especially rural women and working women, from accessing the care they need, Senate Bill 20 doubles down on increasing restrictions here in NC. As a result, these extreme restrictions effectively ban abortion for the majority of women in North Carolina who don’t have access to an OBGYN and hospitals in their own counties.  Moreover, SB20 would have far-reaching consequences beyond women's reproductive rights. It would set a dangerous precedent for government intervention in our personal lives and our healthcare decisions. Its passage will erode the principles of individual freedom and limited government that are the cornerstone of our democracy and one that my colleagues across the aisle tout on a regular basis.  

SB 20 is not only an attack on women's fundamental rights and freedoms, but it is also an attempt to impose a narrow and ideological view of morality on the entire state. In fact, a broad majority of North Carolinians believe the US Supreme Court was wrong in overturning Roe v Wade.  Yet, my democratic colleagues and I find ourselves standing before you in this chamber having been excluded from negotiating on this bill just 48 hours after it was released and without any means to amend the bill or to delay the vote by a few days so that we can speak with the people of North Carolina who we are sworn to represent about their positions on this oppressive bill.

A woman’s decision to have an abortion is never an easy one. It is a deeply personal decision that a woman must make in consultation with her doctor, her partner, and her own conscience. We cannot fully understand the emotions and circumstances that lead any particular woman to consider having an abortion. But just as you respect and trust your mother, your wife, your sister and your daughter, we too should respect and trust a woman to make her own decision about her body and your future. 

A recent News and Observer  Article stated that 17 states that ban abortion after 20 weeks have an exception to protect the life or health of the woman. But many worry that doctors will not exercise the vaguely worded exceptions contained in SB 20 out of fear of losing their medical licenses, being fined and being charged with a crime.  We also know that restrictions on abortion will not result in betterhealth outcomes for women. To the contrary, women who are unable to access safe and legal abortions will resort to unsafe methods that can lead to serious harm or death.    And in a state where the maternal mortality rate is outrageously high, reproductive health care providers warn that it will make maternal mortality worse. There have been several scientific studies over the past 2 years that have noted increases in maternal mortality when abortion bans are enacted.  

A University of Colorado study in 2021 found that a total ban on abortion could increase pregnancy-related deaths up to 21% overall and up to 33% for Black women. And now because of the increased criminal sanctions and enormous fines, doctors in this state may delay treating a woman until she is near death. On Tuesday evening I spoke with numerous doctors about their fears of severe abortion restrictions. They spoke of the broken health care system and the lack of access rural North Carolina women have to care and how the additional and completely medically unnecessary restrictions contained in SB 20  will disproportionately harm rural women and working class women.  I will remind the chamber that 82% of North Carolinians do not have paid leave or sick leave. There are 20 counties in the state that don’t have a hospital and 30 that don’t have an obstetrician in their county.  So how exactly is a working mother of two who is employed at a fast food restaurant, who will not benefit from paid leave because this bill only covers state employees. How is she going to take three days off from work over the course of a week to go to a doctor’s office 75 miles away in order to obtain an abortion? SB 20’s extreme restrictions on accessing abortion care are oppressive and cruel to the women in our State.

For the last several months we have seen numerous doctors walk the halls of the legislature asking to meet with both Republican and Democratic members to discuss the importance of codifying Roe, and at a minimum advocating to keep the current law as is. They took time off from work and from their patients to advocate for the women of this state and to educate the legislators who represent them. They spoke of the dangers to women’s health if additional restrictions were put in place and spoke of the personal and heart-wrenching decisions many of their patients have to make when deciding whether to have an abortion.

Dr. Jonas Swartz, a Duke Health abortion provider said that “(We)have worked really hard to educate legislators for the past several months about why an abortion ban in North Carolina would be a bad idea,”And Dr Jenna Beckman, a triangle abortion provider said “I don’t think there’s any common sense to politicians legislating medicine.”  I couldn’t agree with her more. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I did not take a straw poll of the members present in the Senate or House chamber or file a bill to ask the legislature whether I should get a mastectomy or a lumpectomy in order to give me the best chance to live long enough to see my then 5 and 7 year old sons  grow up so I could dance with them at their weddings. 

My husband and I met with doctors and got second opinions. And when a decision had to be made on the best course of treatment to eradicate my cancer and to give me a chance to live for decades to come we relied on my surgical oncologist, my medical oncologist and my radiation oncologist and their collective decades long experience as experts in their field to provide me with the best plan of treatment. 

And I guarantee no single person in this General Assembly who loves their family member would rely on this collective body to make medical decisions necessary to treat their child, their spouse, or their mother.

Yet, SB 20 does just that. 

It supplants the knowledge, evidence and years of medical training and expertise that OB-GYNs have in treating women for a layman’s ideological medical opinion. 

And to be clear SB 20 will have dire consequences. Don’t take my word for it. Take Dr. Thomason’s.  She shared “I’m an ob/Gyn who offers the full breadth of services from delivering babies to hysterectomies. Abortion care is a part of my practice. I oppose any law that imposes restrictions on my ability to offer patient centered, evidenced based care. I’d like to tell you about a Pt of mine.  At 28, this mother of 2 small kids received the devastating news of an aggressive breast cancer diagnosis. She started chemotherapy. Her cancer doctors asked her to stop birth control, which she did. Her periods went away. Then, after chemo, she started radiation therapy. Her periods returned sporadically. It wasn’t then a surprise that she was 12wks when she found out she was pregnant.

She immediately met with her cancer and obstetric doctors. She had two options. She could continue the pregnancy, have to stop her treatment, and when, not if, but when her cancer came back, it would be incurable. Or, she could terminate the pregnancy, continue her treatment, and have a chance of a cure. She and her husband, along with her doctors, made a decision that was best for her family.

I had the honor of taking care of her for an abortion. Under this bill, she wouldn’t be sick enough for an abortion. She would lose her chance of a cancer cure. This is not pro-woman nor pro-family.”

I am so grateful that my cancer diagnosis was made after I had my children and that I didn’t have to make the painful and agonizing decision that that brave mother had to make. Unfortunately if SB 20 becomes law that mother and no other woman in North Carolina will have the choice she had.

Instead of imposing arbitrary and harmful restrictions on women’s reproductive choices, we should work to support and empower women. SB 20 does the exact opposite. I trust doctors. I trust women. And the women of NC deserve better. I urge you to vote not to concur. Thank you.