RALEIGH, N.C. (BP)--In a win for pro-lifers, the North Carolina legislature has reversed a veto of legislation mandating a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion and requiring a doctor to display for the mother an ultrasound image of her unborn child before performing the procedure.
The state Senate voted 29-19 on July 28 to override Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue's veto of the Women's Right to Know Act, barely gaining the three-fifths majority required. The House of Representatives overrode the veto with a 72-47 vote July 26.
The new law requires information be offered to the woman on the development of her unborn baby, as well as alternatives to and risks of abortion. That information must be provided at least 24 hours before a scheduled abortion.
"Mothers and their unborn children are the victors" with the override, said Mary Spaulding Balch, director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee.
"With final passage of this law, no longer will mothers in North Carolina be left to the one-sided sales-promoting information provided by an industry that is in the business of killing unborn children," Balch said in a written release.
"The abortion industry, working in league with Governor Perdue, attempted to place a financial bottom line above the rights and protection of mothers."
Compiled by Tom Strode, Washington bureau chief for Baptist Press.
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