The North Carolina Democrat plans to change sides and allow Republicans to ban abortion

North Carolina State Rep. Tricia Cotham (D), an EMILY-supported lawmaker from a strong blue district in the Charlotte area, is allegedly planned switch their party affiliation to Republican, giving the state’s Grand Old Party a veto-proof majority capable of banning abortion, among other dire priorities. And Abortion bans are high on the agenda in the violet state.

Deputy Whip Keith Kidwell (R) declared a majority in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. introduced an absolute ban on abortion with just one small exception. Kidwell’s bill, which he dubbed the Human Life Protection Act of 2023, aims to make performing an abortion a crime Add civil penalties, including a $100,000 fine and the loss of one’s own professional license.

Cotham becoming a Republican gives state Republicans the power to override any veto by Gov. Roy Cooper (D). News of Cotham’s impending move was first reported by axios and is expected to be announced on Wednesday.

The South is fast becoming an abortion desert as one state after another decimates access to the procedure. The map is looking extremely bleak: Abortion is often either completely banned or severely restricted in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky as early as the sixth week of pregnancy (before many people even realize they are pregnant). The only relatively bright spots are South Carolina, Florida, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you that Florida is doing its best pass a six-week abortion banas well as.

If Florida and North Carolina are no longer able to offer abortion treatments — something that makes Cotham’s party defection all the more likely — the closest clinics for Southern residents are in Virginia, New Mexico, Ohio, Kansas and Illinois — albeit Republicans start cumming now after interstate abortion trips Even a nearby health oasis will soon become irrelevant for a large part of the population anyway.