RALEIGH — Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order on Wednesday outlining various steps he wants the executive branch to take to “protect reproductive rights” after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade on June 24. Cooper was joined by Planned Parenthood activists and Democratic state legislative candidates as he sought to use the order to bolster his party’s standing before the November elections.
“The Supreme Court ripped away the constitutional right to reproductive freedom that women have relied on for five decades,” said Gov. Cooper. “For now, it’s up to the states to determine whether women get reproductive health care, and in North Carolina they still can, thanks to my veto and enough legislative votes to sustain it. I am determined to keep it that way and people need to know that their votes in state legislative races this November will determine the fate of women’s health and freedom in our state.”
Among the provisions in the order, Cooper says cabinet-level state agencies should “coordinate with each other and pursue opportunities to protect people or entities who are providing, assisting, seeking, or obtaining lawful reproductive health care services in North Carolina.” It is unclear what steps those would entail.
The order also directs state law enforcement agencies to not extradite “any person charged with a criminal violation in another state where the violation alleged arises out of the inquiry into, provision of, assistance with, securing of, or receipt of reproductive health care services that are lawful in North Carolina, unless the acts forming the basis of the prosecution of the crime charged would also constitute a criminal offense under North Carolina law.”
The order also states that pregnant cabinet agency employees may not be required to travel to a state “that has imposed restrictions on access to reproductive health care services.”
The president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Alexis McGill Johnson, thanked Gov. Cooper for the order.
“Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, North Carolina has become an increasingly critical access point for people traveling for abortion care, including from neighboring South Carolina and Tennessee, where lawmakers in both states have swiftly banned most abortions. Now we must continue to do everything in our power to ensure abortion remains accessible in North Carolina, both for North Carolinians and those forced to flee their own state amid mounting restrictions and cruel bans,” she said.
In response to Cooper’s order, N.C. Values Coalition Executive Director Tami Fitzgerald noted that the state’s abortion laws did not change on June 24.
“Today’s executive order was an election year stunt, contrived to scare women into thinking there is a problem to solve. This is just Gov. Cooper’s virtue signaling to the abortion industry which is nervous about a predicted veto-proof majority come November. Instead of issuing orders, the Governor should be helping women who are right now in crisis by providing them with the resources they need to be successful and to confidently choose life,” she said.
The status of the state’s 20-week abortion ban is still unclear after Attorney General Josh Stein refused to fully enforce the state’s longstanding statute.
House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain) and Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Eden) wrote Stein the day the court overturned Roe v. Wade asking that Stein fully enforce the law.
“Attorney General Josh Stein must immediately act to enforce North Carolina’s 20-week abortion ban. Any hesitation or dereliction to do so betrays our most vulnerable and is not in the best interest of North Carolinians,” Berger said in the letter.
Read Executive Order 263.
