Gov. Stein issues executive order aimed at reproductive-choice rights

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Thursday, January 16, 2025
Governor Josh Stein to rollout actions on women's reproductive rights
On the campaign trail Stein vowed to protect access to reproductive health care.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WTVD) -- North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein rolled out new actions on reproductive-choice rights for women across the state on Thursday

On the campaign trail, Stein, a Democrat, vowed to protect access to reproductive health care for all women, whether it's contraception, IVF, or abortion.

"Our state has seen alarming attacks on women's reproductive rights over the past few years, and I remain committed to doing everything in my power to protect women's freedoms and their privacy," Stein said. "I am directing my cabinet agencies to take specific action to protect women and health care providers from extreme anti-reproductive freedom laws."

As it stands in North Carolina most abortions are banned after 12 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest, and the mother's health.

Stein's executive order issued Thursday contains several main provisions, according to his office:

  • Directing cabinet agencies to pursue opportunities to protect medical professionals providing lawful reproductive health care services and patients obtaining lawful reproductive health care services in North Carolina.
  • Directing cabinet agencies not to cooperate with efforts to impose penalties, including investigation or prosecution, on medical professionals providing lawful reproductive health care services or patients obtaining lawful reproductive health care.
  • Directing cabinet agencies to protect women's medical privacy by reviewing and, if necessary, revising policies about the records and data they collect related to a woman's reproductive health care
  • Directing DHHS to provide information about the differences between healthcare providers and other entities that offer services to pregnant women-including differences in available services and applicable patient privacy laws-on their printed and online materials.
  • Directing DHHS to take appropriate and feasible measures to ensure North Carolinians have reliable, consistent access to safe and legal reproductive health care medications and birth control

"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 in Charlotte.

Stein's action builds off a previous executive order from former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in 2022 shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Cooper's order 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.

The GOP-dominated state legislature passed and overrode Cooper's veto of a law banning most abortions after 12 weeks in 2023. A federal judge struck down part of the law last year that required physicians to document the "intrauterine location of a pregnancy" before distributing medication for abortion.

Any further legislation on abortion will have a tougher time making its way through the legislature after Republicans lost their House supermajority in the 2024 general election. That also means Stein's veto should be more effective than his predecessor's.

The Associated Press contributed.

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