Under the Dome: NC marks 2 years since Roe v. Wade’s demise
Good morning! ☀️ Working into the night on Monday, the state Senate passed medical marijuana legalization – again – and then signed off on the Senate GOP’s version of the budget. But there was no sign that House and Senate Republicans were moving closer to each other on either issue.
Here’s what else you need to know about North Carolina politics today, from our team and correspondent Stephanie Loder.
MARKING AN ABORTION ANNIVERSARY
On the two-year anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, North Carolina groups and politicians alternatively denounced and celebrated the ruling on Monday.
“Two years ago today, the Supreme Court destroyed the constitutional right to abortion access,” Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement. “Now Republican leaders are launching assaults that put extreme politicians in control of decisions that should be made between women and their doctors. Your vote this November can stop them.”
Last year, the Republican-controlled General Assembly enacted a 12-week ban on abortion.
Democratic lawmakers invited doctors to a news conference to discuss the impact of the ban on women’s health care across the state.
“The rights we cherish, including access to birth control, are under siege by those who seek to impose their beliefs on others, undermining our autonomy and personal choices,” said Sen. Mary Wills Bode, a Granville County Democrat.
Robin Wallace, a family physician and abortion provider, said new anti-abortion laws passed since the Dobbs decision “have created an intentional chaos, forcing thousands of people to remain pregnant with unwanted or unhealthy pregnancies or to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to obtain routine health care.”
At the press conference, Bode noted that she and several of her Democratic colleagues had introduced a bill that would guarantee the right to contraception in North Carolina.
The NC Values Coalition, a socially conservative, Christian advocacy group, also held a news conference Monday morning to mark the anniversary, which overturned Roe v. Wade and declared the Constitution did not protect a person’s right to an abortion.
Tami Fitzgerald, the executive director of NC Values, shared statistics on the frequency of abortions in North Carolina. She said abortion regret is a huge issue and brought speakers to the press conference who said they regretted their abortions.
“A primary concern today are the 1.7 million people who have lost their lives in abortion clinics in North Carolina today,” Fitzgerald said. “Those are only the ones who’ve been counted; of equal importance are their mothers.”
Lawmakers last year reduced the time allowed for an abortion from 20 weeks to 12 weeks, with exceptions. North Carolina still has more permissive abortion laws than many of its Southeast neighbors, which has led patients from neighboring states to travel here for an abortion.
But Fitzgerald said these women will always regret their decisions, noting they will “remember they brought their babies to North Carolina to die.”
Hallie Butts, who said she had four abortions, spoke at the press conference and tearfully recounted the impact abortion has had on her wellbeing. She said she was told abortion was a method of birth control, and was coerced and abused into getting the procedures.
“Never was I given an opportunity to hear about alternatives to ending the lives of my children,” Butts said.
Stephanie Reinhart, founder of another advocacy group, Restored Life, also spoke about her personal experience with abortion. Reinhart said the father of her baby began pressuring her to get an abortion at the age of 20, which she deemed the greatest regret of her lifetime.
“After my last abortion, I just wanted to die,” Reinhart said.
Fitzgerald ended the press conference by urging pregnant women, notably those with unexpected pregnancies, to reach out for resources as they seek guidance and alternatives beyond abortion.
— Vivienne Serret and Kyle Ingram
DISABILITY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS PROTEST DHHS
Disability rights activists in wheelchairs chanted “I’d rather go to jail than die in a nursing home” on Monday and blocked the doors outside the Department of Health and Human Services in Raleigh in protest.
An estimated 50 protesters with ADAPT, a national grassroots disability rights group, worked in 90-degree temperatures and handed out leaflets with their demands for North Carolina, including:
Affordable, accessible housing for people with disabilities.
Support to live in integrated settings.
Increased state funding for people with disabilities.
Equitable person-centered care delivered in homes.
ADAPT wants to stop “institutional bias in Medicaid” and argues that people with disabilities are forced from their homes and into institutions and nursing homes, according to a leaflet.
Protesters – some from as far away as Boston, Minnesota and Pennsylvania – demanded to speak Monday with Kody Kinsley, secretary of DHHS. N.C. ADAPT chapter member Nicky Voyte, of Greensboro, said her group has been unsuccessful in meeting with Kinsley.
A DHHS spokesperson said the activists declined an opportunity Monday to come inside the building and talk with senior executives.
Get the full story from Emmy Martin here.
DMV TO DRIVE UP COSTS JULY 1
Prices have gone up for real estate and grocery shopping, so it just seems like a natural progression that the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles would raise fees this year.
The DMV is required by state law to raise fees every four years, in keeping with any Consumer Price Index changes.
A few examples of DMV cost increases beginning July 1 include:
A Class C driver’s license will cost $52 instead of $44.
The annual fee for a private vehicle registration increases from $38.75 to $46.25.
A learner’s permit and a provisional license go up to $25.50, an increase of $4.
A duplicate license or ID will cost $16.75 instead of $14.
Overall, fees are increasing an average of more than 19% for about 90 different DMV transactions.
As if the fee increases aren’t enough,tack on a processing fee of up to 2% for using your credit or debit card when making a DMV transaction. The fee is part of a provision in last year’s state budget.
Get the full story from Richard Stradling here.
That’s all for today. Check your inbox tomorrow for more #ncpol news.
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