In North Carolina, a few hundred votes could decide future of abortion

Originally published by The 19th

HUNTERSVILLE, NC — Beth Helfrich had locked herself in the bathroom to listen to the legislature vote. It was the only room in the house where the mother of five would be able to hear anything.

It was late one night in May 2023, and North Carolina lawmakers were voting on whether to institute a 12-week abortion ban, which would override the veto of their Democratic governor. Helfrich couldn’t stop listening — and hoping. She’d spent the past several weeks begging neighbors and friends to call their Republican state representative, at one point making phone calls from a rest stop while chaperoning a field trip. All they needed was one person to break ranks.

The stakes felt tangible. Helfrich had experienced two miscarriages. For each, she had been given the option of medical management, including a dilation and curettage procedure, which is also used for abortions. In the wake of state bans, dilation and cutterage has become harder to obtain.

“That’s part of why it feels so personal,” she said. “Yes, I have chosen to have five children and I have always had the autonomy and fundamental right to make decisions about my care every step of the way.”

That night, she listened as one by one, the state’s GOP lawmakers, including her own representative, voted in favor of the 12-week ban.

“It was a moment of such powerlessness and feeling ignored, and I don’t think it was that we weren’t heard,” she said. “It was that we were heard, and it didn't matter.”

The next day, Helfrich, who had never run for office beyond her college’s student government and the parent-teacher association at her children’s school (she was president), called her state Democratic party. That October, she became a candidate for the North Carolina House of Representatives.

She’s part of a growing Democratic effort to turn North Carolina’s Republican-dominated statehouse just a tinge more purple — one that has gotten a jolt of energy from Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign. The vice president has made repeated visits to the state, campaigning alongside popular Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to turn North Carolina blue for the first time since Barack Obama’s landslide 2008 victory. Polls suggest a tight race between Harris and former President Donald Trump, who won North Carolina in the past two elections.