Democratic North Carolina Governor Josh Stein issued an executive order Thursday that he believes will further protect reproductive health care access across the state.
The order directs cabinet agencies to protect women’s medical privacy, protect doctors providing abortions in the state and not cooperate with efforts to impose penalties, investigations or prosecutions of those seeking reproductive health care like abortion.
“Our state has seen alarming attacks on women’s reproductive rights over the past few years, and I remain committed to doing everything in my power to protect women’s freedoms and their privacy,” Stein said in a statement.
Under the order, state agencies are also required to review and, if necessary, revise data privacy policies related to women’s reproductive health care.
The executive order comes as state lawmakers brace for further restrictions on reproductive health access under a second Trump presidency.
Last fall, Oregon’s Democratic Governor Tina Kotek announced the state had stockpiled a three-year supply of the abortion pill mifepristone head of Trump’s return to the White House.
Earlier this week, New Jersey’s Democratic Governor Phil Murphy pledged to begin stockpiling mifepristone as well, citing concerns over the incoming presidential administration.
Trump said on the campaign trail that he would not impose a national ban on abortion, instead leaving the future of abortion access up to individual states. He also pledged to protect access to medication abortion in an interview with Time Magazine but gave himself room to break that promise noting that “things change.”
Stein previously served as North Carolina’s attorney general and was elected governor last year. He succeeded former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, who issued an executive order shortly after the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade protecting North Carolinians from extradition after receiving out-of-state abortions.
Cooper’s executive order also prohibited state agencies from helping other states prosecute North Carolinians from receiving out-of-state abortions.
North Carolina’s law has changed since 2022, with the state enacting a 12-week abortion ban in July of 2023.
