“The abortion ban our state legislature passed is an atrocity that is undermining the health and endangering the lives of moms and pregnant people in our state. It’s putting people needing care for miscarriages at risk, and creating massive burdens for rural, low-income, working class and other families. Gov. Stein understands that, and North Carolina moms, who are the majority of people in the state who have abortions, are enormously grateful that he issued an Executive Order today to protect privacy and access to reproductive health care for women and health care providers in our state.

“Gov. Stein’s Executive Order directs state agencies to pursue opportunities to protect medical professionals providing lawful reproductive health care services and patients obtaining it; and to protect women’s medical privacy by reviewing and, if necessary, revising policies about the records and data they collect related to a woman’s reproductive health care. It prohibits cabinet agencies from cooperating with efforts to impose penalties on medical professionals providing lawful reproductive health care services or patients obtaining it. It directs the state Department of Health and Human Service to provide information about the differences between health care providers and other entities that offer services to pregnant women; and to take ‘appropriate and feasible’ measures to ensure North Carolinians have reliable, consistent access to safe and legal reproductive health care medications and birth control.

“These are important, meaningful actions. Gov. Stein is off to a great start in doing all he can to address the needs of North Carolina moms and families. Our state would be healthier and more economically secure if our legislators did that as well.”