Republicans in Raleigh were successful overriding Governor Cooper’s veto of their abortion legislation. This was celebrated in some “conservative” quarters as a victory.
The bill– SB 20– was not a major victory. It makes abortion legal in the state of North Carolina for nearly any reason through virtually the entire first trimester of pregnancy. — the first three months of pregnancy. (The cut-off is 12 weeks in SB 20, whereas three months would be the equivalent of 13 weeks.)
Women and abortionists can pursue abortions for money or convenience or as an auxiliary method of birth control through nearly the entire first three months. That is the implications of the abortion bill pushed by Republicans.
The fact is that the Republican caucus in both the NC Senate and NC House is packed with moderates and progressives. Indeed, we learn from the Daily Haymaker that the deputy chief of staff in the office of NC House Speaker Tim Moore has been a high-profile gay activist.
And Bob Rucho, a former NC Republican state senator, has taken a shot at House Republicans regarding the budget they recently passed:
I’m looking at the House — they’ve forgotten where they came from on controlling spending. [Their budget’s increase in spending] may be close to 7%. That’s what Democrats do.
I fully respect the fact that the inflation rate has put a lot of pressure on wages and salaries. The feeling of legislators is that they need to compensate. But once you put it into the system, you can’t take it back out.
That just opens the can of worms. Someone has to pay that bill somewhere down the road.
And this is after they had passed Medicaid expansion.
Disntr is quite critical of the Republicans’ half-hearted efforts on abortion. He states they made their own deal with the devil.
The Republicans took 50 years to get Roe v. Wade reversed. Yet this bill is the outcome we now enjoy in North Carolina. There was not even an attempt to do better than 12 weeks. We are now promised that more restrictions might be possible after the 2024 elections. I suppose we are supposed to believe that, just as Charley Brown believed Lucy regarding the football.
All these things are cause for concern but I have not heard any serious proposals to fix the situation except maybe ….throw the rascals out..
I guess the good folks of North Carolina will have to play the cards they are dealt.
In the short run … “Throwe no gyft agayne at the giuers head, For better is halfe a lofe then no bread.”
They can do a lot better than they are doing, Fred. They need to feel citizens’ pressure– especially pressure from their Republican base. They think they are better able to hold on to their majority if they moderate, but in reality they deserve to LOSE that majority.