N.C. Scores Low in Prolife Rankings

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N.C. Scores Low in Prolife Rankings

Special Report - January 23, 2008
North Carolina is ranked as the 30th most pro-life state in the nation in a new report from Americans United for Life (AUL) released January 15. The rankings are included in AUL’s fifth annual Defending Life 2008: A State-by-State Legal Guide to Abortion, Bioethics and the End of Life. The top five pro-life states in the report are Michigan, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas and Kansas. At the bottom of the list are Connecticut (#48), California (#49) and Oregon (#50). The report ranked the 50 states based on their “enactment of prudent and well supported laws that fence in the abortion license granted by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.” AUL focused on pro-life laws such as, informed consent for abortion, parental involvement for minors, abortion clinic regulations, and limits on the use of public funds for abortions. “We are making progress, state by state and law by law,” Denise Burke, AUL vice president and legal director, said in a press release. “In states that have passed these types of laws, the abortion rates have declined by up to 20 percent over the past 10 years.”

According to the AUL report, North Carolina is number 30 on the list because it has no informed consent for abortion law, no protections for unborn victims of violence, no regulation of embryonic stem cell research, human cloning or assisted reproductive technologies, and because it is among the small number of states that do not “expressly prohibit assisted suicide.” Another reason for North Carolina’s low ranking is that no substantive pro-life legislation has been enacted here in over a decade. “North Carolina has a long way to go before we are a state where every life, from conception to natural death, is respected and valued,” said North Carolina Family Policy Council president, Bill Brooks. “The AUL report highlights the weaknesses in North Carolina’s life laws and where we need to focus our efforts in 2008 and beyond.”