What would actually have been the effect of this bill?

North Carolina Legislature Fails to Overturn Governor’s Veto of Anti-Abortion Bill

If it is merely redundant, as the criticisms of the Democratic governor seem to suggest, why bother to veto it and annoy its supporters at least some of whom, among North Carolinians in general, can be presumed to be fellow Democrats?

Why do these people congratulating the governor seem to think he and they have done something useful?

The claims of the governor and his Democratic supporters seem disingenuous when not absurd.

In a rare defeat for anti-abortion activists in the South, North Carolina Republicans failed on Wednesday to overturn a veto of a bill that would have made it a crime to not treat “any infant born alive after an abortion.”

Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, rejected the Senate bill days after it passed both Republican-held chambers in April, noting then that the measure was an “unnecessary interference between doctors and their patients” and would have criminalized a “practice that simply does not exist.”

Doctors are already held to a 2002 federal law that protects fetuses that survive abortions. 

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Cooper reiterated his position that the bill, the so-called Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act, was redundant.

“It’s important to protect the lives of all children, and laws already exist to protect newborn babies,” Mr. Cooper said. 

“Instead of passing unnecessary legislation for political purposes, we need to move on from divisive social issues and focus on the needs of North Carolina families: education, health care and good-paying jobs.”

. . . .

Those who supported Senate Bill 359 said the measure was an important check on potential infanticide. 

The legislation stated that “if an abortion results in the live birth of an infant, the infant is a legal person” and entitled to protection under North Carolina law. 

Penalties for not providing care after a failed abortion would have included a fine of up to $250,000 and potential prosecution under the state murder statutes.

The office of House Speaker Tim Moore said in a statement issued Wednesday that the failed override effort was the “final vote” on the matter. 

Mr. Moore added that Democrats had “successfully prevented a duty of care for all living, breathing North Carolinians born alive in the state.”

Democrats, in return, accused Mr. Moore of unsavory hardball tactics, accusing him of scheduling the vote at a time when one Democratic lawmaker was recovering from a mastectomy.

North Carolina’s bill was similar to a federal measure that Senate Democrats blocked earlier this year. 

Medical professionals at the time said that the federal bill would have led to further complications, including some in which the lives of both the mother and fetus were at stake.