Veto Override of ‘Born-Alive’ Law Fails in NC House as Democrats Vote for Post-Birth Abortion

RALEIGH – It’s a sad day for North Carolina. After nearly an hour of floor debate in the N.C. House, the final vote to override Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act failed to reach the requisite three-fifths majority to enact the law notwithstanding the objections of the governor.

The N.C. Senate previously achieved the three-fifths majority to override Cooper’s veto, before the override motion was sent to the House. There it was placed, withdrawn, and replaced on the calendar for weeks as House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) tried to allow time for proponents of the override to convince select Democrats to join their efforts to protect the lives of babies that survive an abortion attempt.

In the senate, one Democrat, Sen. Don Davis (D-Greene) joined Republicans to override the veto. Davis was vilified by fellow Democrats. They just could not seem to wrap their minds around why a Democrat would vote in favor of creating legal protections for an unwanted child that miraculously survives an attempt to kill it in the womb. Such is the state of the Democratic Party.

It became clear Wednesday in the N.C. House that the pressure from the Left was too much for nearly all House Democrats to resist, even in the face of such a life or death issue. In voting against the override of Cooper’s veto, 53 Democrat House members essentially voted in favor of allowing post-birth abortions – infanticide.

Only two, of 55, Democrats voted in support of protecting babies that survive an abortion attempt.

Only two Democrats, Reps. Garland Pierce (D-Hoke) and Charles Graham (D-Robeson), voted in favor of the override. Each should be commended for doing so, but it wasn’t enough. North Carolina thus remains one of an astonishing 19 states that do not require any protections after surviving a failed abortion.

Culturally, the abortion debate has taken center stage across the United States. Yet, as several Republican lawmakers mentioned on the House floor Wednesday, this bill did not, in fact, seek to regulate abortion in any way. Instead, it clearly relates only to legally protecting babies that emerge from the womb living, breathing, with hearts beating in their chest, despite an abortionist’s attempt to snuff out their life. As such, the Democrats’ official position on life becomes even more clear: if a baby is unwanted, even if it is born-alive, completely separated and independent of the mother, it can be left to die.

Democrats, including Cooper, repeatedly said this was an “unnecessary” bill because it addresses something that simply does not happen. Tell that to the hundreds of documented individual abortion survivors. Further, Cooper and Democrats have no way of knowing it is “unnecessary” or not, because abortionists are not required to keep and report such records.

Elections, they say, have consequences. The 2018 elections, in which Republicans lost their veto-proof super-majorities, are proving consequential for the most vulnerable among us. This reality makes 2020 elections all the more important if Republicans are going to achieve the numbers sufficient to defend the right to life against Democrats that have demonstrated their willingness to allow even babies born-alive to simply die because they are unwanted.

Shame.

As Rep. Pat McElraft (R-Carteret) said on the House floor Wednesday, “God help us if we don’t override this veto.”

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