By Bryan Hanks

This is hard to admit, but today, I’m ashamed to be a North Carolinian.

Earlier today, the N.C. House of Representatives had an opportunity to override the veto of Gov. Roy Cooper on Senate Bill 359, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.

In an act of extreme cowardice on the part of 53 House Democrats — who voted as a bloc to uphold Cooper’s veto — the override failed by three votes to obtain the necessary 60 percent threshold.

In the simplest terms, the bill’s aim was this — if a baby is born alive following a late-term abortion, all efforts must be made to keep that baby alive. If medical professionals failed to do so, there would be criminal action taken against them.

Both chambers of the N.C. General Assembly passed SB359, but Cooper vetoed it on April 18. In his veto message to the legislature, he stated, “Laws already protect newborn babies and this bill is an unnecessary interference between doctors and their patients. This needless legislation would criminalize doctors and other healthcare providers for a practice that simply does not exist.”

That’s where the governor’s logic and explanation is inherently and fundamentally flawed — has Cooper been in every office where a late-term abortion has been performed? Then how does he know this is a “practice that simply does not exist”?

He doesn’t. And that’s one of the things those 53 cowardly Democrats should have kept in mind when they voted to uphold Cooper’s veto.

Some background on me before our left-leaning readers begin to rain down insults — I’m a registered Libertarian and have voted mostly along Libertarian lines for the past 20 years or so. Neuse News Publisher B.J. Murphy — and the rest of my close friends — will readily tell you I am no more fond of the Republican Party than of the Democratic Party. Too often, both parties — nationally and in our state — do what they’re told to do by their leadership.

While I’m not personally pro-choice, I fully support a woman’s right to control her own body and what’s inside it. I guess that technically makes me pro-choice, but call it whatever you want.

However, today’s vote was not about abortion, whichever side of the issue you fall. Today was about a baby, outside its mother’s body, on a table … alive. A doctor can either continue with what he might consider an abortive procedure (which should’ve terminated the fetus’ heartbeat inside the womb) or he can keep that baby alive.

Today, those 53 Democrats murdered an untold number of future babies in North Carolina. I hope they are able to sleep tonight. I know it’s going to be hard for me to do so, knowing 53 legislators in my beloved home state decided a living baby’s life is not worth forgetting that (D) behind their name.

As disappointing as today’s override vote was, I am compelled to applaud our local legislators who voted to override Cooper’s murderous veto today — Rep. Chris Humphrey (R-Lenoir), Rep. John Bell (R-Wayne) and Rep. Pat McElraft (R-Carteret).

It’s also necessary to applaud Sen. Jim Perry (R-Lenoir) and Sen. Harry Brown (R-Onslow), who voted to override the veto in the Senate on April 30.

However, the most courage in the Senate veto override vote on April 30 was shown by Sen. Don Davis of Greene County. Davis was the lone Democrat in the Senate to vote for the override; in fact, his vote was the deciding one that pushed the override movement to the House.

That courageous vote made Davis the only Democrat in either chamber of the General Assembly — 74 legislators in all — who voted his conscience instead of following his governor and his party’s wishes.

Kudos, Sen. Davis.

I hope legislators in my beloved North Carolina are able to bring this issue up again in the next available session, and this time, they cast a common-sense vote instead of doing what they’re told to do by their party’s leaders.

I’d love to be proud to be a North Carolinian again.