Tomorrow is Election Day, and while North Carolina is not a referendum state in which citizens can place initiatives on the ballot, for better or worse, this year’s vote will serve – at least effectively – as a referendum on the future of a fundamental and long-established constitutional right for women in several U.S. states.
As Policy Watch Lynn Bonner reported last week, North Carolina has become a sanctuary state for people seeking abortion care.
Many more people are seeking abortions in North Carolina since June, when the U.S. Supreme Court rescinded the constitutional right to abortion and neighboring states began outlawing or severely restricting abortions.
Fifty-three percent of the people coming to A Woman’s Choice North Carolina clinics are from out of state, spokeswoman Amber Gavin said in an interview. At least one person has come as far away as Missouri.
…North Carolina is one of the states that has experienced the biggest increase in abortions since April, according to a report released last week by WeCount, a group led by the Society of Family Planning. The WeCount report takes a state-by-state look at abortion access since the Supreme Court decision.
But, of course, as Bonner and many other journalists have also reported, abortion rights hang by a virtual thread in the Tar Heel state. With Republican legislative leaders pledged to end abortion rights and currently just a handful of seats away from commanding veto-proof supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, it’s quite conceivable that tomorrow’s election results could mean this fundamental reproductive freedom in our state is entering its last few months.
What’s more, as Dr. Abby Schultz – a Triangle-are OB/gyn physician – explained in a commentary for Policy Watch last week, the current 20-week prohibition is already causing great pain and suffering:
I just saw a patient whose pregnancy was diagnosed with a lethal genetic anomaly. All she wanted was to be a mother and when she first learned that her pregnancy had some features of this disorder, she wanted confirmatory genetic testing before deciding what to do. By the time the genetic analysis returned confirming that her baby would not survive birth the 20-week ban was re-enacted, and she was too late in her pregnancy to have an abortion in this state.”
Remarkably, Schultz also reports hearing from several women in monogamous relationships who are exploring sterilization in order prevent the possibility of pregnancy in the case that they were ever the victims of rape.
The following is a by-the-numbers look at this issue – where things stand, what the public thinks about the issue, and what might happen when votes are counted in the coming days.
37 – Percentage increase in the number of abortions that have taken place in North Carolina between April and August as people traveled here from other more restrictive states
0 – number of states that experienced a larger increase
52 – Percentage of abortions performed in August at Planned Parenthood’s Charlotte clinic that were out-of-state patients
14 –Percentage in August 2021
74 –Percentage of abortions performed in August at Planned Parenthood’s Asheville clinic that were out-of-state patients
37 –Percentage in August 2021
14 – Number of states in which a ban on abortions (or near ban – Georgia bans the procedure at six weeks of gestation) is currently in effect
8 – Number of states in which a total or near-total ban is on the books, but that has been at least temporarily blocked by the courts
25 – Number of states, including Washington, D.C., where abortion remains generally available under the law
20 – Number of weeks into a pregnancy at which North Carolina law bans abortion – even if the prohibition could cause serious harm to the mother. The law specifically states that the threat of suicide is not sufficient grounds for a waiver.
72 – Number of hours that a patient seeking an abortion in North Carolina must wait under current law
32.2 – Percentage of North Carolinians who favor stronger anti-abortion laws for the state
67.8 – Percentage who oppose further restrictions or support making abortion care more accessible
100+ – Number of miles many North Carolina patients must already travel to obtain abortion care from one of the relative handful of providers in the state
100 – Percentage of patients for whom that number would likely increase if they were forced to travel out of state.
28-22 – Current GOP advantage in the North Carolina Senate
2 – Number of additional seats need to command a supermajority capable of overriding a gubernatorial veto of new abortion restrictions
69-51 – Current GOP advantage in the North Carolina House
3 – Number of additional seats need to command a supermajority capable of overriding a gubernatorial veto of new abortion restrictions
Sources: KFF Society of Family Planning “WeCount report, September 2022 WGHP/Emerson College/The Hill Poll, abortion care providers.
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