Statement on the Total Abortion Ban Filed in NC (3/29/23)

Despite North Carolina’s post-Dobbs reputation as a ‘safe haven’ for abortion (to say nothing of the overwhelming increase in our caller volume and extended wait times for care), North Carolinians are once again facing an attempt to curtail reproductive freedom. An attempted total abortion ban has been filed in North Carolina. 

Freedom for some is not freedom for all; we accept nothing less. As we have said session after session, criminalizing pregnancy outcomes, regardless of circumstance, harms us all. 

H.B. 533 (the full text of which can be found here) seeks to ban abortion from conception. The bill is rife with misinformation and built on fantasy (consider that pregnancy does not medically begin at conception–pregnancy begins after a fertilized egg implants into the uterus). Of course, the people writing the bill don’t understand pregnancy. Of course, the people writing this bill have no interest in the lives of people who get pregnant, no interest in the reasons a pregnancy might need to end. Of course, cruelty is the point. Of course, of course, of course.

Let us be clear: all abortion bans are extreme. Whether a bill attempts to ban abortion at conception, at six weeks, at twelve, or at twenty–every week marker is arbitrary. The end goal is the same: to control our bodies. “Exceptions” are hollow, ineffective, and morally corrupt. 

We can promise you this: we are not going anywhere. We will keep our eyes on this bill, and the bills that will surely come in the future. Again and again we will rise to meet the moment and remain steadfast in our commitment to our callers.  We remain a pro-choice, pro-abortion organization committed to ensuring all Carolinians have access to abortion care.