President Pro Tempore Phil Berger - Legislative Update: Senate Overrides Cooper's Veto of Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act | Eastern NC Now

Press Release:

    Last Tuesday, the Senate voted to override Governor Roy Cooper's veto of The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act which requires doctors to provide medical care to babies born alive during an attempted abortion.

    I still don't understand why this is such a controversial issue, but most Democrats including Gov. Cooper continue to push the idea that deciding whether a live baby deserves medical care or should be left to die is a decision between a mother and her doctor, showing how far left the Democratic Party has moved.

    Thankfully we were able to get enough votes in the Senate to override the veto including Democratic Senator Don Davis who was promptly attacked by members of his own party on social media for not falling in line with the party's radical agenda.

    Every human being, no matter their political leaning, should agree that an infant who is born alive should receive available medical care and I hope that the N.C. House will also override the veto when they take it up this week.

    The Startling Numbers for last week's NCAE Strike

    Last Wednesday, the far-left NCAE strike came to the General Assembly despite historic investments in teachers, students, and schools by the Republican-led legislature.

    At the conclusion of the strike, the Republican Senate Caucus tallied how many people visited each of their offices throughout the day.

    Twenty-seven offices provided figures which show that 157 people visited those offices. That's less than five visitors per office. The low volume aligns with the very small number of pre-scheduled meetings, which is 18.

    By comparison, 886,283 children missed an entire day of school to facilitate the far-left NCAE's political rally.

    The math reveals that for every minute NCAE protesters spent actually meeting with Republican senators, 125 kids missed a full day of school.

    The fact remains that while the NCAE claims to be a nonpartisan education advocacy organization, the reality is they are a far-left organization that continues to ignore the facts and attack Republicans.

    It's unfortunate that almost a million students were deprived of a day of valuable instructional time and parents were required to find childcare or miss work so the NCAE could hold a Democratic political rally at the General Assembly.

    Senate Unanimously Passes Excellent Public Schools Act of 2019

    Last Thursday, the Senate unanimously passed The Excellent Public Schools Act of 2019 which makes evidence-based policy changes to early childhood literacy programs.

    I was the main sponsor of this bill and it incorporated input from a coalition of education stakeholders.

    Early literacy is a major determining factor of a child's future success, so we have to get this right. Read to Achieve has worked better in some school districts than others, so we set out to learn why and how to improve the program. This bill is the result of that extensive analysis, and it incorporates best practices from across the state and country.

    I appreciate the input from so many people as we developed this legislation and I'm happy to see it receive such broad support in the Senate.

    Contact: Senator Phil Berger

       http://www.philberger.org/