Updated as of 12:38 a.m. May 17 to include more detail from the General Assembly vote.
The North Carolina General Assembly overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto on Senate Bill 20 – making abortion now illegal in North Carolina after 12 weeks. The North Carolina Senate convened on May 16 to vote on the “Care for Women, Children and Families Act,” otherwise known as SB20. After the bill passed by a margin of 30-20, it then moved to the House floor in the evening where it passed with a margin of 72-48.
After the final vote to override the veto, protesters within the General Assembly chamber chanted at Republican lawmakers. They were then forced to vacate the building under threat of arrest by the General Assembly Police and formed a group outside the complex.
Prior to the vote on SB20, Republican North Carolina State Senator Amy Galey, who represents the district covering Alamance County, accused Democrats of relying on abortion-rights groups.
“The Democratic Party bought and paid for the abortion industry,” Galey said during the vote. “The number one truth about this bill is that it is exposing the Democrats for what they are: beholden to the abortion special interests they depend on to run their election machine.”
Galey said she also believes an unborn child is something that should be protected.
“An unborn baby is not a sack of cells in the uterus. It is not a cancer. It is not a parasite,” Galey said.
The Assembly’s veto comes after Gov. Roy Cooper publicly vetoed the bill on May 13 during a rally for reproductive freedom.
North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton was present at the final vote.
“The bill itself when they voted on it last week was passed so rapidly that I don't really feel like voters got the opportunity to hear and understand and put their input into what they would have liked to have seen out of this,” Clayton said.