NC GOP making last-minute ‘clarifying’ changes to abortion law before it takes effect

The North Carolina Senate moved quickly Thursday to amend the recently passed 12-week abortion ban that has been challenged by Planned Parenthood in federal court, ahead of the new law going into effect next week.

Senators were debating other bills Thursday afternoon when they took a recess for 20 minutes. When they came back, GOP leaders had added one more bill to the day’s calendar. An amendment offered to that bill by Sen. Joyce Krawiec, one of the main sponsors of the abortion bill, included what Republicans said were “technical clarifying changes” they wanted to make to the law before it takes effect on July 1.

Included in those changes is a section that strikes language in the original bill that stated physicians providing drugs for medication abortions needed to verify that the gestational age for a developing fetus “is no more than 70 days,” or 10 weeks.

Opponents of the new abortion law had criticized Republicans for rushing the bill through last month without making clear how it would affect the point in a pregnancy until which medication abortions would be allowed under law. Planned Parenthood, which is seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the law from immediately going into effect, said in its lawsuit that the medication abortion provisions were “nonsensical.”

The lawsuit is scheduled to get its first hearing in federal district court in Greensboro on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Krawiec told lawmakers that the amendment “clarifies that elective medication abortions are lawful through 12 weeks as was the original intent of the bill.”

The amended bill ultimately gained initial approval in a 27-17 vote that fell along party lines. Three Republicans and three Democrats were recorded as having excused absences. The bill still needs one more vote in the Senate, which is expected to occur on Monday, before it can be voted on in the House and be sent to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, the Democratic whip, said he and his colleagues were notified of the GOP’s plan to make changes to the bill as session was going on. Democrats were seen huddling as votes were being cast, and used the recess to figure out what to do.

“This was an amendment offered with very little notice while we were casting votes, regarding a federal lawsuit on the most important piece of legislation that we have passed in this chamber, legislation that impacts the reproductive rights of every woman in the state,” Chaudhuri told The News & Observer after session. “Being afforded 20 minutes to review that amendment is simply not enough time and it frankly shortchanges our democratic process.”

“We made an attempt to try to review the amendment but given the fact that the amendment is five pages long, given the fact that the Department of Health and Human Services hadn’t reviewed the bill, given the fact that we’ve not been able to talk to stakeholders, it just simply didn’t afford enough time for us to form an opinion,” Chaudhuri said.

Members of the North Carolina OB/GYN Society, which opposed the abortion law, met with lawmakers over the last several weeks to discuss the bill’s regulation of medication abortions, said the group’s president, Dr. Thor Svendsen. In a statement, Svendsen thanked lawmakers for clarifying “the rules for these types of abortions for patients and their physicians.”

Senate leader Phil Berger presided over most of Thursday’s session, until lawmakers recessed before taking up changes to the abortion law. When they came back, Sen. Ralph Hise, another high-ranking Republican, took over and presided over the rest of session.

Lauren Horsch, a spokesperson for Berger, told reporters that Berger had to leave to attend a family matter back in his district.