Right to Lifers, stunned by Roe ruling, have a plan to limit abortion in NC

Barbara Holt spent three decades pushing back against Roe v. Wade as president of North Carolina Right to Life, but she was still in shock when all the pushing by right-to-lifers finally broke through.

Holt, 74, was at the National Right to Life convention in Atlanta when it happened. During the opening session on Friday, June 24, Holt heard people outside the room yelling. The commotion alarmed her: “I didn’t know if someone had gotten through security.”

Then came the news: The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade.

“It was the day we looked forward to, but at the same time it still came as a total shock,” Holt, of Elon, told me this week. “People were happy, dazed and crying. It was quite an experience.”

The court’s ruling is both sweeping and open ended. It took away a constitutional right that had stood for 49 years, but it didn’t outlaw abortion outright. Instead, the ruling leaves it up to each state to decide whether to allow the procedure and, if so, how to regulate it.

For Holt, the court’s action brings her lifetime efforts full circle.

“What we plan to do hasn’t changed for anyone,” she said. “We wanted it to return to the states and now it’s back in North Carolina.”

Model state legislation proposed by Right to Life would allow abortion only to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape and incest that have been reported to authorities.

“We are going to keep working on saving every child we can,” Holt said.

The group also will seek to make adoption easier in North Carolina, said Holt, whose only child is adopted. “So many people are ready and willing to adopt. We always promote that,” she said.

A general ban will reduce abortions less by enforcement and more by symbolism, Holt said. Many chose the procedure because its legality gave it a moral sanction, she said, but some in North Carolina would not consider it an option if it’s against the law in most circumstances.

Right to Life would not support legal penalties for women who seek abortions despite a state ban.

“We’re not out to criminalize mothers. We feel that in many cases they are the ones that have suffered in this process,” Holt said. “It’s the ones that perform the abortions when it against the law. Those are the ones that need to be prosecuted.”

That has become more complicated with the rise of medical abortions. Policing abortion would not be mostly a matter of limiting or closing clinics and charging doctors who perform them. Currently more than half of U.S. abortions occur by taking a two-step combination of pills, usually in the privacy of one’s home. The process can be done up to about nine weeks.

Holt acknowledges that the pill option will complicate attempts to restrict abortion. “That’s going to be a problem,” she said. “It’s a big issue.”

She stepped down as president of the North Carolina chapter of Right to Life in 2019 after serving since 1990. She is vice chair of the national Right to Life organization.

Her North Carolina successor is Dr. William Pincus, a retired ear, nose and throat doctor, who sees medical abortions as traumatic and risky. He supports laws that restrict it. He also backs the “A Second Chance for Life” bill that would require that patients be notified after taking the first pill that they can halt the abortion process with other medications without injury if they act quickly.

Abortion rights advocates say they are fortunate that Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto prevents major new restrictions on abortion in North Carolina, but they expect a wave of legislation after the November election, especially if Republicans regain veto-proof majorities in both chambers.

“Now that the federal protections of Roe have been overturned, we expect to see continued restrictions introduced, and possibly a complete ban or a Texas-style law that empowers individuals to block people from accessing abortion,” said Tara Romano, executive director of the Pro-Choice North Carolina Foundation.

Both sides say the future of abortion access in North Carolina depends on who will make the laws.

Sid Holt, “The work we started in ’73 will continue. We will keep on keeping on, trying to elect pro-life leadership and pass pro-life laws.”

Ned Barnett is the associate opinion editor for The News & Observer.