Some North Carolina lawmakers are attempting to use a new bill to further dismantle the enforcement of the principle established in Roe v. Wade that women are entitled to safe and legal abortions.
House Bill 465 would prevent doctors at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and East Carolina University hospitals from performing abortions.
The bill also requires women seeking abortions to talk with a qualified health care provider three days before the procedure may occur.
This bill eliminates a woman’s access to a timely procedure and needlessly restricts two of the state’s most competent medical centers.
These hospitals are also important teaching institutions, and preventing doctors from performing abortions at these locations would disrupt education about safe abortion practices for North Carolina’s next generation of medical professionals.
North Carolina law currently stipulates that women seeking an abortion must speak with a medical provider 24 hours prior to the procedure. By increasing this time period to three days, lawmakers limit access to the abortion procedure. This particularly affects any for whom time and distance to a medical provider may be an issue.
In what ways do these measures improve the safety or situation of women seeking an abortion? None at all.
By forsaking a woman’s access to a safe and accessible abortion procedure, House Bill 465 is a sad example of lawmakers ignoring well-established legal principal to appeal to a vocal minority.
