The Impact of Defections and Bans on Abortion Protections in the South

North Carolina's GOP-controlled legislature enacted a 12-week abortion limit after a House Democrat, Tricia Cotham, switched to the GOP and voted to squash Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of the bill to limit abortion access. Cotham's defection gave Republicans veto-proof margins in both the House and Senate, upending the state's fragile power balance and perhaps opening the floodgates to a new wave of conservative policies. Cotham, who ran last fall on a platform supporting abortion access and LGBTQ+ rights, has since supported bills that critics say are at odds with those stances.