Discrimination against unborn babies is still legal in North Carolina after Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a bill Friday to prohibit abortions based on a baby’s race or the likelihood that the may have Down syndrome.
Cooper, a pro-abortion Democrat, has vetoed a number of pro-life bills since he became governor, including 2019 legislation that would have protected newborns who survive abortions from infanticide.
While signing his latest veto, Cooper slammed the bill as an “unprecedented government intrusion” into a decision that should be between a woman and her doctor, WRAL News reports.
The Human Life Non-Discrimination Act (state House Bill 453) would prohibit abortionists from knowingly doing an abortion because of the unborn baby’s race or the likelihood that he or she has Down syndrome. It would have added to a 2013 state law that bans discriminatory sex-selection abortions.
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Pro-life lawmakers criticized the governor for allowing discrimination to continue in North Carolina.
“With a stroke of his pen, Gov. Cooper just told North Carolinians that it’s OK to discriminate based on race or disability as long as it’s in the womb,” state Sen. Amy Galey, R-Alamance, responded in a statement. “This bill simply put an end to eugenics.”
Meanwhile, state House Speaker Tim Moore said they will not give up their efforts to protect unborn babies and end discrimination in North Carolina.
“Gender, race and disability are protected classes in most other contexts. Why should we allow the unborn to be discriminated against for these same traits?” he said in a statement. “The message sent by this veto is that some human life is more valuable than others based on immutable characteristics.”
Lawmakers pointed out that Down syndrome tests are incorrect about half of the time, and doctors sometimes pressure women to have abortions if a test shows the genetic abnormality.
“I do not think that one person should get to end the life of another human being because of a judgment about the value of that individual person’s life,” Galey said. “Think about the distinction about not wanting to be a mother or a parent at all and not wanting to parent this person.”
Tami Fitzgerald, president of the North Carolina Values Coalition, said Cooper was wrong about the bill.
“Saving unborn babies who have been diagnosed with Down syndrome from being targeted for selective abortion based solely on their disability prevents discrimination,” she said. “Ending that kind of discrimination based on a disability is most certainly not an ‘unprecedented government intrusion’ as Cooper said, because our civil rights laws were intentioned to end just that kind of discrimination.”
Sixteen states have enacted bans on one or more types of discrimination abortion, and 12 states protect unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome.
Discriminatory, eugenic abortions have become an increasing concern with the growing availability of prenatal genetic testing. Unborn babies with Down syndrome and other disabilities are targeted for abortions at astronomical rates. Many believe sex-selection abortions also occur in the U.S., though data is limited.
Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser, a North Carolina native, said Cooper should be ashamed of himself for siding with the radical abortion lobby instead of vulnerable children.
“Previously Cooper vetoed compassionate legislation to ensure that babies who survive abortions receive medical care,” Dannenfelser said. “Now he refuses to put an end to lethal discrimination against children in the womb. In North Carolina and across America, the people through their representatives are sending a clear message that it’s time to humanize our laws.”
She urged state lawmakers to vote to override the governor’s veto.
ACTION ALERT: Contact Governor Cooper with your complaints about his veto by going here.
