Planned Parenthood defunded by state budget – Governor Veto Override

By Claire, Communications Intern

The official press release for NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina is Here.

At midnight last night the Republican-controlled House along with 5 Democrats voted to override Governor Perdue’s veto of the state-budget.

This means that Planned Parenthood loses all state funding and federal Title X funding.  The budget also removes abortion coverage from government employee health insurance at the state and local levels (similarly to HB 910). Major cuts to social programs like Smart Start and More at Four, which serve to close the education gap for low-income children and their families also occurred.  Environmental programs also received cuts.  The education ‘reform’ outlined in the budget will overburden teachers and cut jobs while causing students to suffer the consequences while the legislature seeks to find a solution to the issues in our school systems.

Planned Parenthood is planning to fight this, as I’m sure other organizations are.  We will keep you posted about development with action alerts, updates on the blog and our social networking sites.   

It is important in these times to remember that nothing our state government does is finite and impossible to reverse.  November 8th is the next election day and these people can be removed from office.  We can show them with our votes that they do not represent us anymore.

Want to see if your representative voted for or against the veto override?  Here is the information.  Look for your representatives by last name and party-affiliation.  Hint to those with Republican representatives, they all voted yes.

Remember, everyone is up for election this year on November 8th!

Update

As expected the North Carolina Senate joined the House and voted 31 to 19 to override the veto.

H.B. 854 passes NC House, onto Senate…women left out in the cold.

By Claire, Communications Intern

Yesterday the North Carolina House passed in a vote of 71-48 to pass H.B. 854.  This bill, patronizingly named “Woman’s Right to Know” would require an ultrasound, 24-hour waiting period, and a state-mandated script written by politicians that doctors would have to read to their patients.

This is an incredibly paternalistic bill that assumes women cannot make their own decisions without the state looking out for them.  It assumes that women do not think long and hard about motherhood and the decisions they make towards it.

Women would have to pay for their own ultrasounds, and if they cannot pay they can go get a free one at any one of our state’s crisis pregnancy centers, further pushing an obvious anti-choice agenda.  They would have to wait 24 hours from the moment they schedule their appointment, and the ultrasound must be performed 4 hours before the abortion can take place.  These restrictions will be required even in the case or rape, incest or threat to the mother’s life.  It is an outrage and an insult.

Republic Ruth Samuelson, (R-Charlotte) who sponsored said “This is about respecting women.  This bill keeps abortion legal. It keeps abortion safe. And, by golly, we know it helps make it more rare. It is still her choice. It makes it her informed choice.”  By making it more rare, we do not empower women to make their own choices.  The new-found rarity will be simply be all the women who cannot afford the time or money required to get one.  Emphasis mine.

Only a handful of counties actually offer abortion services.  Many women, especially those who have to work full-time or have inflexible schedules would be forced to take unnecessary work leave for their abortions.  Many women, in these tough economic times, do not have the luxury of time-off.  Likewise, many women who seek abortion are already mothers who equally do not have time as they try to provide for their families.  These women already know what choice they have to make.

The Representatives who passed this bill are using women as a tool to maintain power.  We have seen this for months.  Instead of trying to create more jobs or fix the unemployment problem in other ways, the “leaders” in our government have gone after any excuse to restrict anything connected to abortion services.  They started under the guise of tax-payer money and have moved to regulating services that women and their insurance (if they have it) pay for themselves.  They are using “moral outrage” to hide from their constituents.   Women and the poor are paying the price. Governor Perdue puts it nicely in her statement over the decision.

“The legislature should be focused on what they said they would focus on: creating jobs and strengthening education.  Government has no role interfering in the relationship between a doctor and a patient. Legislative leaders who vow to make government less intrusive and to protect individual freedom are advancing a bill that does just the opposite.”

More information will be coming out in the next hours.  This bill still has to go to the Senate.  It is known as S.B. 769.  Please contact your Senators

HB 910 passes out of Committee, goes to House.

By Claire, Communications Intern

House Bill 910 passed out of committee this morning and will possibly be discussed today along with HB 854 (aka Women are Idiots Bill).

HB 910 will bar all government employees at the state, county, and municipality level from using their state health care for abortion.  This is regardless of the known fact that abortion is covered in 87% of health insurance programs, and is part of comprehensive health benefits.

Not only will this hurt the female employees of the state of North Carolina.  This bill potentially oversteps the bounds of the state government by enforcing such a law on city and county governments who provide their own insurance for their employees.  This is a problem for Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt who testified this morning against this bill.  He was concerned both for the potential lack of comprehensive health care for his city employees and for potential increased insurances costs this will cause.

Thank you to Mark Kleinschmidt for standing up for women and for being a leader in women’s right in North Carolina.

Call your legislators NOW! http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/

Tell your Legislator to Oppose “Choose Life” License Plates

Tell your legislator to oppose \”Choose Life\” license plates

Let your representative know that you want her/him to oppose H.B. 289, which includes a provision that would create “Choose Life” license plates. This legislation would create a variety of specialty license plates in North Carolina and includes those that convey this anti-choice message.

Even worse? All funds collected from the sale of these plates would be funneled by the state to so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs), which exist to dissuade women from having abortions, often through misinformation and deceptive practices.

Click on the link above to take action.