Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Celebrates Cheri Beasley’s Victory in the North Carolina Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate
Washington — Today, NARAL-endorsed candidate Cheri Beasley won the Democratic primary in North Carolina for election to the U.S. Senate. Beasley, former Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, now advances to the November general election.
NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju released the following statement in response to Cheri Beasley’s victory:
“NARAL Pro-Choice America congratulates Cheri Beasley on her primary victory as she advances to the November general election in her historic bid to become North Carolina’s first Black U.S. senator. With Roe v. Wade in peril and anti-choice lawmakers across the country working in overdrive to ban abortion, we need champions for reproductive freedom like Beasley in the Senate now more than ever. NARAL and our members were proud to endorse Beasley, and we look forward to continuing to mobilize voters to elect her and other candidates determined to protect and expand our freedom to decide if, when, and how to raise our families.”
Beasley has voiced her support for the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), legislation that would protect the right to abortion throughout the United States. She is also committed to ending the anti-choice Hyde Amendment’s discriminatory ban on coverage of abortion care for those who receive their health insurance through government-administered healthcare programs.
Beasley’s primary victory comes as NARAL Pro-Choice America is ramping up its work to elect candidates up and down the ballot during a critical moment in the fight for reproductive freedom. Soon, the U.S. Supreme Court will issue its final decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—a case about Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban that directly challenges Roe v. Wade. A recent leak of the Court’s draft majority opinion confirmed that the Court is poised to overturn Roe and end the constitutional right to abortion as we know it.
If Roe falls, 28 states—including three that border North Carolina—are likely to take action to prohibit abortion outright, and there could be a 4,672% increase in women of reproductive age whose nearest abortion provider would be in North Carolina. Pregnant people in North Carolina already face medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion care, including biased counseling, mandatory delays, and restrictions on medication abortion.
Read more about NARAL’s endorsed candidates here.
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For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for every body. NARAL is powered by its more than 2.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.