For the second time, North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore has moved the bill to abolish abortion in North Carolina (NC HB158) to a different committee in response to a discharge petition being filed by the bill’s author, Representative Larry Pittman.
A discharge petition is a motion to bring a bill out of committee and onto the floor of the chamber. If a majority of the body signs the petition, the bill is then eligible to be heard on the floor. On June 30, Pittman filed the first discharge petition to bring HB158 out of the House Judiciary 1 Committee. Two weeks later, on July 13, Moore moved HB158 into the House Families, Children, and Aging Policy Committee, thus voiding the discharge petition.
On August 4, Pittman filed another discharge petition:
“Thank you Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Rule 39, I am giving notice that I will file a motion and the requisite petition to discharge House Bill 158 Constitutional Amendment/Life at Fertilization from the Committee on Families, Children, and Aging Policy with the principal clerk today — which, of course, can be signed, if you’re interested in signing, in the clerk’s office. In accordance with the rules, I have obtained a fiscal note to be included with the petition, with my objections to the note reduced to writing. In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
This time, Moore wasted hardly three minutes before moving the bill again, this time to House Judiciary 2 Committee.
“Mr. Clerk, the chair is going to direct House Bill 158 — this is Constitutional Amendment/Life at Fertilization — this is the bill that the discharge petition was filed on — the chair is going to remove the bill from the Committee on Families and refer the bill to the committee on Judiciary 2. If favorable rules, the discharge petition will be returned to the gentleman.”
The North Carolina pro-life Republican establishment not only opposes HB158 but desperately does not want to be forced to go on record. Tim Moore doesn’t want a light to be shined on the darkness of his fellow pro-life Republican establishment representatives who oppose immediately abolishing abortion. So he plays tricks like these to protect the political careers of cowards.
Anti-abolitionists like Tim Moore will be able to keep playing his dirty tricks for as long as he can without being exposed for them. To make sure he can’t get away with it:
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James_Silberman
