A new bill may lead to 15 abortion clinics’ closing in North Carolina, leaving but one standing, all in the name of women’s health—and motorcycle safety.

Originally, Senate Bill 353, called the Motorcycle Safety Act, was written to protect motorcyclists by increasing fines and penalties on drivers who endangered them. However, the bill begins, “An act to modify certain laws pertaining to abortion.” It doesn’t mention motorcyclists until the very last sentence of the introduction.

The bill requires a physician be present for the duration of any type of abortion, including chemical or pill abortions. It prevents abortions for gender selection and allows any health care provider to opt out of performing an abortion if it is against his or her ethical or moral beliefs. The law also makes drastic changes to the safety requirements of abortion clinics.

 “Abortion clinics do not usually have the resources or facilities to deal with major complications, so this will help women have access to appropriate care,” Rebekah Bradley, a senior in political science and representative of the College Republicans, said.  “The regulations that they put in place needed to be modernized. Over half of the current regulations were implemented in the 1970s. We’ve just had so much more technological and medical advancement since then, and our clinics need to be up-to-date with those.”

However, critics call the bill an indirect attack on abortions under the guise of women’s interest as it will effectively close most of North Carolina’s 16 abortion clinics. Only one meets the new standards. The new standards mirror those of an outpatient surgical center, which cost about a million dollars more to build than an abortion clinic. Moreover, some of the new requirements include adding a water fountain and bathroom to the waiting facilities, new air conditioners and wider hallways.

“It’s ludicrous to characterize this bill as a women’s health bill,” Josh Stein, a North Carolina Democratic senator, said. “The national and North Carolina chapters of OB-GYNs  commented and wrote a letter to the legislature urging us to reject the bill because they said it would have a negative effect on women’s health.”

As state employees, the N.C. State Women’s Center felt that it would be inappropriate to comment.

The organization Americans United for Life drafted the model legislation, the Abortion Patients’ Enhanced Safety Act, which became the Motorcycle Safety Act. This raises a few questions about ulterior motives behind the legislation. 

“If this bill was aimed toward any other type of medical procedure such as clinics that operate under dental care or any other medical procedure it wouldn’t be as big of a political issue–I think people would be in favor of modernizing health standards and regulations,” Bradley said. 

Moreover, the Affordable Care Act in North Carolina will no longer cover abortion procedures.

 “It opts out of using State dollars for abortions except in the case of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger,” Bradley said.

According to Bradley, 17 other States have this provision.

The abortion provisions in Senate Bill 353 were originally put into House Bill 695, an anti-Sharia law bill. However, as they were placed into House Bill 695 late at night–right before the vote–the Senate decided to pass a second reading. 

Because of this, Gov. McCrory threatened to veto House Bill 695 unless significant changes were made. Within hours of this announcement, the drafters of Senate Bill 353 added provisions to the bill that were almost identical to the ones made to House Bill 695. 

“[The provisions] had already passed the House of Representatives and had been debated in the Senate,” Bradley said. “It wasn’t new legislation that no one had heard of. It had been discussed for several months.”

However, not all of the members of the general assembly were informed of the additions until three minutes before the debate and vote on Senate Bill 353. 

For example, Rep. Joe Sam Queen, @JoeSamQueenNC, tweeted, “New abortion bill being heard in the committee I am on. The public didn’t know. I didn’t know. #ncga”

“The process for passing this bill was atrocious,” Stein said. “It was never debated in committee. It was introduced late at night and originally attached to an anti-Sharia law bill, and then it passed the Senate. And then the House attached it to a motorcycle safety bill, again, having nothing to do with reproductive health.”

 “It was inserted into the Motorcycle Safety Bill, but it received, I believe, up to 10 hours of debate,” Bradley said.  “It was thoroughly discussed … The Senate at 695 was the only time it was debated at night, that’s where the criticism came from, but after that it was all debated during the day.”

Gov. McCrory signed the bill into law on July 29, receiving both praise and criticism.

“This legislation does not restrict abortion—it is meant to provide safety and updated regulations for women who seek abortions,” Bradley said. “I think that it’s unfair to operate medical clinics in sub-standard conditions.”

“They did this rush job because they knew that they were restricting women’s access to health care and that women would be outraged,” Stein said.