North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein Orders Flags at Half-Staff for Gloria Steinem

North Carolina Democrat Gov. Josh Stein ordered state flags to be flown at half-mast through Sept. 10 in honor of Gloria Steinem. The leftist feminist died last Wednesday aged 92.

“Flags across North Carolina will be at half staff through September 10 in honor of Gloria Steinem. Steinem was a powerhouse journalist and advocate for freedom and equality. Her work inspired so many and helped women in the United States and across the world make real strides,” Stein wrote on his official X account announcing the decision.

Steinem rose to prominence for her pro-abortion work among a number of other leftist causes. She is credited with coining the term “reproductive freedom” and thanked the doctor who performed her own abortion in a 2015 memoir.

Stein “placed abortion rights at the forefront of his campaign” according to WRAL-TV in 2024 and made his pro-abortion stances a central part of his political persona.

Within days of taking office in January 2025, he issued an executive order lamenting the Dobbs decision and fearmongering over federal abortion restrictions.

That order directed all state Cabinet agencies to “Protect Reproductive Health Freedom and Privacy” and they “may not require any pregnant Cabinet Agency employee to travel from North Carolina to a state that has imposed restrictions on access to reproductive health care services if those restrictions do not include an exception for the health of the pregnant Cabinet Agency employee satisfactory to that employee.”

North Carolina’s Republican-controlled state legislature passed a 12-week ban on abortion in 2023 over the veto of then-Gov. Roy Cooper in a measure that also increased state funding to crisis pregnancy centers, child care, and foster care.

“When women succeed, families and communities are stronger. May her memory be a blessing,” Stein concluded in his message announcing the lowering of state flags.