North Carolina Republicans Budget Stops Tax-Funded Abortions

The budget state Republican legislators have floated in North Carolina would end the practice of funding abortions in the state with taxpayer dollars — to the tune of $50,000 annually.

In 1978, former Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt created the State Abortion Fund to pay for abortions with public money up to 20 weeks into pregnancy. In 1995, the state legislature narrowed the parameters of the fund to allow publicly funded abortions only for women below the federal poverty line who aren’t eligible for Medicaid and limiting the funding to rare cases when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or the life of the mother is in danger.

They also scaled back the pricetag from $1.4 million annually to $50,000 per year.

Now, a provision in the Republican budget plan would eliminate the abortion fund entirely and another section of the budget would extend the prohibition on taxpayer funding of abortions to the health insurance programs for public employees paid for at taxpayer expense.