Source: AP
Just two weeks after taking office, North Carolina’s Democratic Governor Josh Stein has already implemented new measures to protect individuals’ reproductive rights.
The move came in advance of Trump returning to the White House. Trump was responsible for appointing the MAGA justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, and it’s unclear what actions he will take regarding abortion access during his second term.
“I don’t know what will happen, but what I am trying to communicate to the people of this state is that they have a champion in me for their personal privacy and their right to make their own health care decisions,” Stein said at a news conference.
Under the executive order, state Cabinet agencies are ordered not to cooperate with prosecution against health care providers who provided legal reproductive health services, including abortion.
State agencies must also review and revise how they store data related to a patient’s reproductive health to maximize protections for individual privacy. The NC Department of Health and Human Services is currently charged with ensuring access to legal birth control and reproductive health care medication for North Carolinians.
Stein’s action builds off a previous executive order from former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper. In 2022, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Cooper issued an order that offered protections from extradition to out-of-state abortion patients and barred state agencies from aiding other states’ investigations into abortion patients traveling to North Carolina.
Stein’s actions further cement yearslong efforts by Democratic governors to offer sanctuary to those seeking abortions across the country. North Carolina is one of the only states in the South that doesn’t restrict abortion access to six weeks or below.
