North Carolina Justice Center’s statement on protecting the right to abortion

RALEIGH (February 1, 2023) – The North Carolina Justice Center works to ensure all people across the state can access the resources they need to achieve economic security. We condemn any legislation that would further restrict the right to abortion and thus jeopardize the health, prosperity, and futures of many North Carolinians. Abortion is an issue closely tied to healthcare access, workers’ rights, and economic justice—areas at the forefront of our mission as an anti-poverty organization.

Each North Carolinian should have equitable access to healthcare, including the right to make their own healthcare decision with their providers. Restricting abortion also means preventing access to life-saving medical care such as for pregnancies that end in miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, and other serious complications.

Restrictions on abortion indelibly harm women, people of color, transgender and nonbinary people, people with low incomes, immigrants, people with disabilities, and, in particular, all who live at the intersections of those identities.

The fundamental human right to bodily autonomy faces a precarious future in North Carolina—a state in which 91 percent of our counties already do not have an abortion provider and millions of dollars in state resources are given to anti-abortion centers each year.

Allowing people to make the best decisions for themselves and their families moves us closer to a just and equitable North Carolina where all people—not just the wealthy few—have access to comprehensive reproductive health care. When people can decide whether and when to have children, they have more control over their economic security.

We trust North Carolinians to make these important decisions about their lives, their families, and their futures.

Our lawmakers should trust them, too.

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