Onslow, state leaders react to overturning of Roe v. Wade

Jacksonville resident Hope Kohl is scared for the future of women, saying she believes now, more than ever, there is a war against them.

"The Supreme Court's ruling was not only insulting, but it does not stop abortions for our country," Kohl said. "It just stops the practice of safe abortions. Mortality rates on pregnant women will go up significantly, because we are taking away safe abortions for women. Women’s rights are women’s rights, and it should be up to that specific woman to make her own choices."

Kohl's reaction follows the Supreme Court decision Friday overturning Roe v. Wade, ruling that Americans no longer have a constitutional right to abortion, and turning the decision to the states, though in North Carolina, abortion rights will remain legal.

A majority of the justices held the right to end a pregnancy was not found in the text of the Constitution nor the nation's history, according to reporting from USA TODAY, which added Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion for a 6-3 majority.

"We have been kind of anticipating this for a little while," said vice president of communications for Heartbeat International, Andrea Trudden.

Heartbeat International is an anti-abortion pregnancy resource center with more than 3,000 affiliated pregnancy resource centers, including the Onslow County Resource Pregnancy Center.

"We are happy that the court finally realized that the Roe v. Wade case was not necessarily decided the way the constitution holds true," Trudden said. "It's nice that it actually goes back to the states."

Trudden said they also know rights will vary state by state, and women are going to need more or different services.

"We do know, too, that abortion is not going away in the country, that's not what this does," Trudden said. "What it does do is change how we need to care for women."

She said Heartbeat International's pregnancy resource centers have been preparing for this decision for about half a year.

USA TODAY reporting says the decision instantly shifts the focus of one of the nation's most divisive issues to state capitals, adding Republican lawmakers are set to ban abortion in about half the states while Democratic-led states are likely to reinforce protections for the procedure.

Access to abortion, in other words, will depend almost entirely on where a person lives.

"For 50 years, women have relied on their constitutional right to make their own medical decisions, but today that right has been tragically ripped away," said North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper in response to the decision. "That means it's now up to the states to determine whether women get reproductive health care, and in North Carolina they still can.

"I will continue to trust women to make their own medical decisions as we fight to keep politicians out of the doctor's exam room."

The opinion follows a decades-long movement by conservatives to overturn the high court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which established a constitutional right to abortion. The effort to roll back that right was aided by former President Donald Trump, who was elected in 2016 in part on a promise to name justices who would overturn Roe. Over the course of a single term, Trump managed to put three conservative justices on the high court.

Congressman Greg Murphy, M.D. (NC-03) released a statement Friday afternoon calling the decision a "momentous day for the pro-life movement."

“The Supreme Court, basing their decision on the 14th Amendment, has ruled that, ‘the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion,'" Rep. Murphy said. "Roe v. Wade was errantly constructed, both as an assault on the unalienable right to life, as well as a gross violation of the 14th Amendment – overriding states’ rights in the name of federal overreach. The Supreme Court’s ruling is constitutionally valid, as the decision on abortion will now rightfully be returned to the American people and their elected representatives.”

Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at mstarling@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on The Daily News: Roe v. Wade overturned: Onslow, North Carolina reacts to the news