A former North Carolina Democratic lawmaker who switched parties earlier this year helped to override Gov. Roy Cooper (D) veto of an abortion ban in the state in one of her first acts as a Republican.
Rep. Tricia Cotham, a lifelong Democrat switched parties in April handing a veto-proof supermajority to Republicans in the North Carolina state House. With Republicans already having a supermajority in the Senate, the move allows the state GOP to pass very conservative polices without the threat of Democratic Gov. Cooper vetoing their legislations.
On Tuesday, Cotham joined her Republican colleagues in the House to override Cooper’s veto and enact a sweeping new abortion legislation banning the procedure after 12 weeks of pregnancy. The vote fell strictly along party lines, 72-48 in the House and 30-20 in the Senate.
The legislation extends the waiting period for people seeking abortions to 72 hours, demand that physicians make real-time views of fetuses available and allow people seeking abortions to listen to the fetus’ heartbeat, according to NBC News. The law does allow for exceptions in cases of rape or incest and a “life-limiting anomaly” in the fetus.
In a statement, Cooper slammed the decision to override his veto and vows to “continue doing everything I can to protect abortion access in North Carolina, because women’s lives depend on it.”
Cotham, who won her seat as a Democrat in a blue district by nearly 20 points, actually campaigned on protecting the right to an abortion.
“Now, more than ever we need leaders who will be unwavering and unapologetic in their support of abortion rights,” she wrote in a tweet last May. “I’ll fight to codify Roe in the #ncga and continue my strong record of defending the right to choose.”
At a press conference in April announcing her party switch, Cotham said she felt “bullied” and the “modern-day Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to me.”
“The party wants to villainize anyone who has free thought, free judgment, has solutions, who wants to get to work to better our state, not just sit in a meeting and have a workshop after a workshop,” she said. “If you don’t do exactly what the Democrats want you to do, they will try to bully you. They will try to cast you aside.”
