TO THE EDITOR:
Most North Carolinians think decisions about reproductive health care should be left to a woman, not politicians. But the N.C. General Assembly isn’t listening to its constituents.
In spite of public opinion on this issue, the leadership in Raleigh is on a mission to ban abortion care in our state. So far this legislative session, legislators have introduced seven bills restricting access to abortion and reproductive health care.
These bills aim to disempower N.C. women and the medical professionals who care for their reproductive health. If they pass, these laws will effectively ban abortion care in many areas of our state, allowing North Carolina to join the ranks of Mississippi, North Dakota and Kansas.
Senate Bill 308 is a Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers bill 1designed to increase the cost and limit the accessibility of abortion in North Carolina. Regulation of abortion providers is not about protecting women’s health, it’s about reducing an already limited supply of abortion providers.
House Bill 716 is bill that would fine doctors up to $100,000 for performing an abortion where sex selection is a “significant factor” in a woman’s decision.
A ban on sex-selection abortion will do nothing to address the legitimate problems of gender-preference and sex discrimination, it will simply make doctors less likely to perform abortions for the women who need them.
These proposed regulations are attempts to make abortion care more difficult to obtain in our state. They seek to achieve this goal by punishing the doctors who perform abortions and the clinics where they practice so that they will be unable to continue offering this service.
These bills threaten the health and safety of North Carolina women, and disproportionately affect rural women, who already face more barriers to reproductive health care than their urban neighbors.
