North Carolina's Republican-dominated House passed and sent to the state Senate a controversial bill limiting most abortions to the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, a sharp drop from the state's current limit of 20 weeks' gestation
The bill passed 71-46 along party lines, with one Republican and two Democratic lawmakers not voting.
The legislation would have far-reaching consequences for women who had been traveling to North Carolina for abortions from nearby conservative Southern states that banned or strictly limited the procedure after the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned the 1973 ruling establishing federal abortion rights.
If the bill becomes law, it would also require doctors to be present when abortion medication is administered, levying a $5,000 fine against anyone who mails abortion pills or holds a telemedicine appointment for an abortion that does not occur in the presence of a doctor. Cotham's Wednesday vote marked a dramatic change in her stance from just one year ago, when she wrote on Twitter that the country needed "leaders who will be unwavering and unapologetic in their support of abortion rights," and vowed to "continue my strong record of defending the right to choose."
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