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tricia cotham
NC Legislature Overrides Vetoes of Republican Bills That Launch 'All-Out Attack' on Trans Youth
"Extremist legislators are trying to gain political power by harming vulnerable young people and their families."
Aug 17, 2023
North Carolina's Republican-dominated Legislature voted Wednesday to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's vetoes of several GOP bills attacking trans youth, a move that rights advocates called a "devastating" assault on the rights of vulnerable young people.
One of the measures enacted Wednesday over the governor's opposition outlaws gender-affirming care—including puberty blockers and hormone therapy—for trans minors, making North Carolina the latest state to attack healthcare access for trans youth.
The gender-affirming care ban, H.B. 808, takes effect immediately.
Another bill, S.B. 49, bars any instruction about gender identity and sexuality in K-4 classrooms and "requires that public school teachers in most circumstances alert parents before they call a student by a different name or pronoun," the Associated Pressreported.
A third measure, H.B. 574, prohibits trans girls from playing on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity from middle school through college.
"We need to call this what it is: An all-out attack on queer and transgender youth in North Carolina," Allison Scott, director of impact and innovation at the Campaign for Southern Equality, said in a statement Wednesday.
The North Carolina Legislature is "going out of its way to blatantly enact the far-right's anti-LGBTQ wish list, causing harm and discrimination to young people in every area of life, from school to the doctor's office to the athletic fields," Scott added.
The growing wave of Republican attacks on trans youth across the U.S. prompted the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) to declare a national state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in June, with the advocacy group warning that "the multiplying threats facing millions in our community are not just perceived—they are real, tangible, and dangerous."
More than 550 bills targeting LGBTQ+ rights have been introduced in state legislatures nationwide this year, and more than 80 have been signed into law, according to HRC.
Cathryn Oakley, HRC's senior director for legal policy, said in a statement Wednesday that "every lawmaker in North Carolina that voted to override the governor's veto should be ashamed of themselves."
"These bills range in impact from curriculum censorship to school sports to banning best practice healthcare," said Oakley, "but they have one important throughline: extremist legislators are trying to gain political power by harming vulnerable young people and their families. Once again, the North Carolina General Assembly has prioritized anti-transgender discrimination over the well-being of North Carolina."
Republicans secured their veto-proof majority in the North Carolina General Assembly after state Rep. Tricia Cotham, formerly a Democrat, switched parties in April. The GOP already had a veto-proof majority in the Senate when Cotham became a Republican.
On Wednesday, Cotham joined Republicans in voting to override Cooper's vetoes.
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Democrat-Turned-Republican Helps North Carolina GOP Override Abortion Ban Veto
North Carolinians who voted for state Rep. Tricia Cotham, who defended abortion rights before switching to the GOP, were "deeply betrayed," said one observer.
May 17, 2023
The North Carolina Legislature voted Tuesday to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto and pass a bill banning abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, with Democrat-turned-Republican state Rep. Tricia Cotham giving the GOP the support it needed to ram the measure through in the face of significant public opposition.
Formerly an outspoken defender of reproductive rights—she's still listed as a co-sponsor of Democratic legislation to codify Roe—Cotham switched parties last month in a move that gave Republicans a veto-proof majority in the House, adding to its existing veto-proof majority in the Senate.
Cotham voted for the 12-week abortion ban's initial passage earlier this month and backed the veto override on Tuesday as protesters in the House gallery chanted, "Shame!"
In a statement, the now-Republican lawmaker said she believes the bill "strikes a reasonable balance on the abortion issue and represents a middle ground."
"Some call me a hypocrite since I voted for this bill. They presume to know my story," said Cotham, who has previously spoken about her own abortion. "As I said at the time, I had an ectopic pregnancy that sadly ended in miscarriage, not an elective abortion. In fact, Senate Bill 20 affirms the lifesaving care I received in that dire situation."
Progressive Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam argued that Cotham's statement essentially tells the people of North Carolina that "the bill would've protected me therefore it's enough, screw everyone else."
\u201cLast line from @triciacotham is basically saying \u201cthe bill would\u2019ve protected me therefore it\u2019s enough, screw everyone else.\u201d\u201d— Nida Allam (@Nida Allam) 1684286601
Rejecting Cotham's depiction of the abortion ban as moderate, Dr. Katherine Farris—Planned Parenthood South Atlantic's chief medical officer—warned the new law is "full of medically unnecessary and dangerous restrictions on abortion care that go against medical best practices."
"Not only do the actions of our lawmakers make me angry, but they also scare me," said Farris. "Treating my patients should not be seen as an act of civil disobedience. A person's health, not politicians, should guide important medical decisions at all stages of pregnancy."
As The Washington Postnoted, opponents of the measure have raised particular alarm over a "provision that would require patients to have an in-person consultation with a doctor at least 72 hours before an abortion, in addition to the visit required for the abortion itself."
"The extra in-person visit would make it harder for out-of-state patients to travel to North Carolina, which currently allows abortion until 20 weeks of pregnancy and has become a destination for patients seeking abortions across the South in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling [overturning Roe v. Wade]," the Post reported. "In the first two months after the landmark decision, North Carolina experienced a greater spike in abortions than any other state."
The new law would also, as Vox's Dylan Scott wrote Wednesday, establish "intrusive reporting requirements, such as mandating that doctors report a patient's fertility history to the state government after an abortion, including information such as their number of live pregnancies, previous pregnancies, and previous abortions."
"The law does include some provisions that Republicans say will provide additional support for children and families, including a new paid parental leave policy and increased child care subsidies," Scott observed. "But both programs have significant holes. Paid parental leave applies only to state employees, not the private sector. Increasing the state's child care subsidies for families already receiving them would not alleviate the main problem with accessing child care in North Carolina, as there are already 30,000 children in the state on a waitlist for financial assistance. The law does not do anything to get people off of that waitlist."
The 12-week abortion ban is set to take effect on July 1.
Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said late Tuesday that "today's vote will have devastating consequences across North Carolina, and for the thousands of patients in the region who've relied on the state as a key access point for abortion."
"This ban, like all abortion bans, will harm people who have the right to make their own decisions based on what is best for themselves, their lives, their families, and their futures," said Johnson. "No one should be forced to travel out of state to access abortion care. No one should be forced to carry a pregnancy that they do not want, or that is dangerous to their health. And yet, today that is what the North Carolina legislature is forcing them to do."
"Today's vote will have devastating consequences across North Carolina, and for the thousands of patients in the region who've relied on the state as a key access point for abortion."
Citing two former Cotham staffers, Jezebel's Susan Rinkunas reported this past weekend that the lawmaker's decision to switch parties "wasn't really about any genuinely held beliefs, political issues, or even money."
As one ex-staffer put it: "I wish I could say that she took a giant bag of cash at an IHOP and that's why she did this—but it's so much dumber than that. It's just a deeply petty, personal thing."
The staffer told Rinkunas that Cotham felt her Democratic colleagues didn't like her.
"Cotham had also been annoyed that Planned Parenthood didn't endorse her," Rinkunas reported, even though Cotham "blew off the actual endorsement interview for the group multiple times" during her 2022 campaign.
In a Planned Parenthood candidate questionnaire for the 2022 race, Cotham described herself as "an unwavering advocate for abortion rights."
Following Tuesday's vote, Jezebel's Laura Bassett wrote that "North Carolinians are being politically trampled here, as they do not support banning abortion this early in a pregnancy: According to new polling by Carolina Forward/Change Research, 54% of voters in the state oppose the 12-week ban, while only 40% support it."
"It's a shame that people who voted for Cotham, thinking (reasonably) based on her previous speeches that she'd defend abortion rights, were deeply betrayed in the end," Bassett added.
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'12-Week Abortion Ban Is Not About Life': Bishop Barber Blasts North Carolina GOP
"If these extremists who claim to be Republicans were serious about life, they would pass living wages, healthcare, family leave, and fully funded public education."
May 11, 2023
Ahead of a gathering at the North Carolina General Assembly planned for Friday morning, Bishop William Barber II on Thursday called out the state's Republican lawmakers for trying to ban abortions after 12 weeks, rather than the current 20 weeks.
"Republican extremists in the North Carolina General Assembly are trying to pass an abortion ban that they say is 'pro-life.' But if they were serious about life, they would be addressing the fourth-leading cause of death in the U.S. today—poverty," said Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
"A 12-week abortion ban is not about life," he stressed. "If these extremists who claim to be Republicans were serious about life, they would pass living wages, healthcare, family leave, and fully funded public education. We must respond to this attack on all North Carolinians with a moral coalition that leads a movement against policies directly harming our nation's people."
"We must respond to this attack on all North Carolinians with a moral coalition that leads a movement against policies directly harming our nation's people."
Barber is set to join an interracial, interfaith group of clergy members and leaders of the North Carolina Poor People's Campaign at 11:00 am ET Friday to decry the pending ban as attack on the state's millions of poor and low-income residents.
The North Carolina GOP's push to further restrict reproductive healthcare is part of a national trend that has intensified since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade with its Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling last June.
Although Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has vowed to veto Senate Bill 20 on Saturday, North Carolina Rep. Tricia Cotham (R-112) suddenly decided to join the Republican Party last month—after years of campaigning and serving as a pro-choice Democrat, and even speaking on the state House floor about her experience having an abortion—giving the GOP a veto-proof majority.
As part of a series of events intended to pressure at least one GOP legislator not to override his veto, Cooper and other critics of S.B. 20 came together Tuesday outside of Charlotte. They targeted Cotham and state Rep. John Bradford (R-98), who both voted for the 12-week ban, which has few exceptions and would also impose other restrictions.
\u201cReminder: just 1 single Republican legislator out of 102 in the entire #NCGA can stop Senate Bill 20, the brutal new Republican 12-week abortion ban, from becoming law.\n\nWill any one of them have the courage?\nhttps://t.co/xtkGI57vVg #ncpol\u201d— Carolina Forward (@Carolina Forward) 1683813055
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic spokesperson Molly Rivera recently told the Citizen Times that "we operate six clinics across the state. None of our health centers, including Asheville, meet the requirements that would be mandated by an ambulatory surgical center license."
The looming law and potential clinic closures could impact people seeking abortion care across the Southeast. Riveria said that "right now, the majority of patients that we're seeing, specifically at the Asheville Health Center, are from out of state."
S.B. 20 was swiftly advanced through the North Carolina General Assembly last week. As The News & Observer detailed:
Between Tuesday night and Thursday evening, House and Senate Republicans announced they had reached an agreement on new abortion restrictions, unveiled the 46-page bill, moved the bill out of a joint committee meeting, and passed the bill through each chamber so it could be sent to the governor.
Debates on the bill were fairly extensive. The Senate's floor debate was the longest of the last decade, according to Senate leader Phil Berger's [R-26] office. But critics have slammed the speed with which the bill cleared the Legislature through a special process that meant it didn't need to go through multiple committees and couldn't be amended.
The Reproductive Freedom Alliance, a nonpartisan group of 22 governors including Cooper, said in a statement Thursday that "the state Legislature rushed this legislation through with little transparency or public input and it has become clear why: The more North Carolinians learn about this law, the more they oppose it."
"We support Gov. Cooper's pledge to veto this dangerous measure and we remain committed to strengthening reproductive freedom across the country," the alliance continued, also highlighting that ten of millions of people have already lost access to abortion care in their home states since Roe was overturned.
Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler of the Carolina Abortion Fund toldThe Guardian this week that her group's clientele has increased "astronomically" post-Dobbs—going from 100-120 calls a week to that many daily, often from people who live in states with even stricter abortion laws.
"It is an economic punishment as much as a moral judgment that they're casting," Orlovsky-Schnitzler said of S.B. 20, "and I think [it] is really beyond the pale."
"Abortion bans won't stop people from wanting or seeking this care," she added. "There are some lawmakers in the state who have previously indicated that they would not support additional restrictions on abortion care. And if we can push them, there's hope."
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