North Carolina has voted to enact a spate of new standards on women’s health clinics that provide abortions – attached to a motorcycle safety bill. The new restrictions could well lead to the closure of all but one of the state’s abortion providers.

North Carolina State Capitol)
Image: wikipedia.org

Republican lawmakers say they believe that the new legislation will make abortion safer for women, by directing state regulators to enact standards for abortion clinics that will bring them in line with outpatient surgical centers, reports the AP.

Among the new regulations included in the bill, known as HB 695, are requirements for doctors to be present during the entire surgical abortion procedure, as well as when a patient is administered the first dose of a chemically induced abortion.

The legislation also prohibits government-provided insurance plans to pay for abortions, and grants North Carolina’s health department to enact temporary new rules over the state’s 31 women’s health clinics that provide abortion services at will.

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Posted by The NON-Conformist