Gov. Cooper to campaign against abortion bill this week

NORTH CAROLINA (WWAY) — Governor Roy Cooper is taking his push to protect abortion rights to certain parts of the state this week, including New Hanover County.

The governor spoke with CBS’s Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan on Sunday about the state’s new restrictive abortion bill.

He told Brennan he will go into state lawmakers’ districts this week to hold education forums on the implications of the bill. He says lawmakers don’t have to answer to him, they have to answer to their constituents.

“[Republicans have] dressed this up as a 12-week ban, but it’s really not. They rammed through a bill in 48 hours with no public input, with no amendments, that drastically reduces access to reproductive freedom for women,” Cooper said. “It will effectively ban many abortions altogether because of the obstacles they have created for women, for clinics, and for doctors.”

Last week, Cooper released a video pleading with voters to pressure four legislators to uphold his veto of Senate Bill 20, which would ban elective abortions at 12 weeks. Among the four mentioned were Senator Michael Lee and Representative Ted Davis.

Lee shared a statement with WWAY on Friday that reads, “Roy Cooper deliberately lied about my position on abortion during the 2022 campaign and he’s lying now. I have been more than open about how I would vote: protecting life in the 2nd and 3rd trimester and safeguarding exceptions for rape, incest, health of the mother, and fetal anomalies. I voted exactly how I said I would.”

Davis told WWAY he had no comment.

Cooper has not officially announced a visit to New Hanover County at this time.