Across North Carolina and the country as a whole, we’ve all seen the mounting attacks on reproductive freedom. Touched off by the Supreme Court’s regrettable Dobbs decision, which overturned 50 years of settled precedent in Roe v. Wade, opponents of reproductive freedom have mobilized to pass sweeping bans on abortion.
Today, Carolina Forward is releasing “No Heartbeat” – a video spot that shows how abortion care and reproductive freedom affects real lives. We’re taken into the lives of Carrie and Sam, a young couple jubilant at the expected arrival of a new baby who are then crushed to learn that their pregnancy is non-viable. It’s then that they realize how the total ban on abortion care that some politicians have promised their supporters would force Carrie to carry the pregnancy to term.
Watch the video:
“No Heartbeat” is being released on digital platforms to audiences all over North Carolina.
Since the Dobbs decision came down, Republican candidates all over the nation have been documented removing or changing language about abortion from their platforms:
- NC-13 Congressional candidate Bo Hines, already reeling from his “banana republic” gaffe, scrubbed all mention of abortion from his campaign website. (He previously promised to support a national “100% ban” on abortion.)
- E.C. Sykes, candidate for the NC Senate in District 18 (Wake/Granville counties), has shared conflicting messages – striking a moderate tone to the press, but an uncompromising anti-abortion stance to his supporters.
- Brian Echevarria, candidate for NC House in District 73 (Cabarrus), is crystal clear that he wants to completely ban abortion statewide in North Carolina in this podcast interview, but has since erased that language from his website and replaced it with more moderate language.
Many more have pivoted their position on the abortion issue, or are ignoring it completely.
North Carolina voters will evaluate the merits (and sincerity) of candidate positions on reproductive freedom in this November’s election, less than two months from now. We hope that, in the spirit of Carrie and Sam, they do so with full knowledge that these issues are complicated, deeply personal, and utterly inappropriate to legislate from Raleigh.
