NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina welcomes the news that Governor Cooper has vetoed the inflammatory and stigmatizing HB 453, an anti-abortion bill that sought to insert politics and distrust into the patient-provider relationship and limit people’s access to abortion care.

As we’ve stated from the time HB 453 was introduced, decisions about whether and when to continue or end a pregnancy, or to raise a child, are best made by pregnant people, their family, and their health care provider. Abortion bans based on the reason behind a person’s decision have never been about promoting equality or ending discrimination. Instead, these types of arbitrary bans are part of a larger campaign to stigmatize abortion care, and make it more difficult for people to access the care they need.

Reproductive rights and justice advocates, healthcare professionals, faith leaders, and disability rights advocates have all spoken compassionately and eloquently against this bill. Now that it has been vetoed, it’s time for the North Carolina General Assembly to focus on the priorities of North Carolinians – expanding access to healthcare, addressing the continuing economic, public health, and racial justice crises, and passing a budget that invests in the people in our state.