North Carolina Republican legislators rolled out on Thursday adjustments to the state's new abortion restrictions that are set to take effect in days, addressing some provisions that litigation seeking to block the law's enforcement calls confusing and inconsistent.
GOP senators said the changes offered on the Senate floor were small, designed to affirm the intent of the measure enacted last month over Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto that in part would ban starting July 1 nearly all abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.
The lawsuit cited several requirements in the new abortion law that it claims are "unintelligible, inherently contradictory, irrational, and/or otherwise unconstitutional into every part of the abortion process." Senate Democrats who vehemently opposed the new abortion law in the spring said Thursday's changes could have been avoided if Republicans hadn't rushed through the underlying abortion changes over three days in May. Now, pending litigation is making them act to attempt to fix the problems, said Sen. Sydney Batch, a Wake County Democrat.
All Democrats in attendance Thursday afternoon voted against the bill, which will need one more affirmative vote next week before it goes to the House for consideration. This measure, like the new abortion law, would be subject to Cooper's veto stamp. Republican legislators have veto-proof majorities in both chambers.
Abortion-rights advocates say other new rules on patients and providers will make it even harder for poor or rural residents to obtain abortions and could force some abortion clinics to close. Supporters of the new law call the 12-week limit with exceptions a middle ground in one of the few Southern states with relatively easy access to abortion following last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down the Roe v. Wade ruling.
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