What to know about NC’s death penalty abortion bill, from someone who lives here

To know Larry Pittman is to ignore him.

Pittman, who represents part of Cabarrus County in the NC House, is an instigator. His bills do not catch on among his fellow Republicans, something even he has admitted to. His stances mostly serve to stir the pot and are best snuffed out by cutting off their oxygen. It’s why, when Pittman filed a bill calling for a constitutional amendment allowing “deadly force” in response to abortion in February 2021, local media didn’t pick up on the story.

Local media, however, doesn’t always dictate coverage. Sometimes, it’s social media. It’s why a bill that hasn’t been touched for nearly a year is suddenly the subject of various national media stories.

On Monday, the founder of the pro-democracy group Voters of Tomorrow tweeted about the bill, saying “Republicans in North Carolina just introduced a bill that’d make abortion punishable with death. So very pro-life of them.”

The tweet isn’t accurate, something original poster Santiago Mayer tried to correct later. While his July 20 correction has just under 200 likes and fewer than 30 retweets, the original tweet has more than 110,000 likes, and 20,000 retweets. Searches for “HB 158” have shot up in the last week, according to Google Trends, and has had ten times the searches since the last action on the bill in August 2021.

Don’t be mistaken: the fact that someone believes this and is allowed to serve as an elected official in North Carolina is scary, but it’s also not the first time Pittman has filed ridiculous bills or said ridiculous things, and the North Carolina Republican Party knows that.

“This had zero chance of passage from the moment Larry Pittman thought of it,” says Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University. Cooper notes that these sorts of bills exist in state legislatures across the country. They are filed to make a point (since the bill is now in the public record), or because the legislators aren’t thinking about the political reality.

Since 2011, Pittman has been making points and dragging down North Carolina with him. His Wikipedia page includes a “controversial statements” section, which features hits like comparing Lincoln to Hitler, saying the state should ignore the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, and calling Black Lives Matter protesters “vermin” and saying police should be allowed to shoot them.

While his Republican colleagues don’t censor him, they don’t exactly play ball. Of the 69 Republicans in the NC House, just four of them signed onto the bill, and only one (Mark Brody of Anson and Union Counties) co-sponsored the bill. North Carolina Republicans currently have a majority in both chambers of the legislature, but they are not able to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto, which would certainly come down on a bill restricting abortion rights. Even if Republicans had a veto-proof majority, HB 158 would have to be approved by voters before becoming part of the state Constitution.

“The Republican majority, even if they wanted this bill, which I don’t believe they did, would know that it wouldn’t pass and so they’re not going to bring it up for the same reason that they’re not going to even try to move on abortion and get vetoed by Governor Cooper,” Chris Cooper says, “because it just doesn’t look good to lose.”

While Democrats cite the bill to raise funds, it isn’t the real threat to abortion rights in North Carolina. The “Born Alive” bill passed by the legislature in 2019 actually had support, despite the issue at hand (babies being “born” after an abortion) being an extremely rare occurrence already covered by existing law. The bill, vetoed by Cooper, was offered to further stigmatize abortion and scare people who may need one.

The state legislature is currently fighting with the state’s attorney general, Democrat Josh Stein, who says he will not enforce a 20-week abortion ban that was blocked by a federal judge in 2019, because the rule violated the now-overturned Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling. And come November, North Carolina Republicans could once again hold a supermajority.

Pittman, for his part, is retiring this year. But co-sponsor Mark Brody and the three signees — Jay Adams, George Cleveland, and Keith Kidwell — are not. Brody, Adams, and Kidwell are running unopposed. So is Kevin Crutchfield, the man running to replace Pittman.

So yes, the bill is scary. But to spread it on social media, and allow it to become a fundraising tool shows a lack of understanding the political dynamics of North Carolina — and ultimately scares people seeking abortion in our state.