Pro-choice protesters urge Gov. Pat McCrory to keep his promise not to sign any new laws restricting abortion.

Pro-choice protesters urge Gov. Pat McCrory to keep his promise not to sign any new laws restricting abortion.

North Carolina's Republican Gov. Pat McCrory vowed during his campaign that he would not sign any more bills further restricting abortion. But now he's got one on his desk that would extend the state's existing 24-hour waiting period to obtain an abortion to 72 hours. And he is obviously pondering the possibility of breaking his promise or he would already have hauled out his veto stamp.

The 72-hour waiting period is one of the forced-birthers' more recent efforts in their 40-year campaign of making abortion harder for women to obtain. Such a law, as my colleague Kerry Eleveld wrote, was just signed in Oklahoma.

If McCrory breaks his vow, North Carolina will join four other states with this situation:

Waiting Periods

Abortion For Buying a Firearm

Missouri: 72 hours 0 hours

Oklahoma: 72 hours 0 hours

South Dakota: 72 hours 0 hours

Utah: 72 hours 0 hours