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GREENSBORO — Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed a bill Monday that would have imposed a waiting period and other restrictions on women seeking abortions, stopping in Greensboro to reject the measure in front of a small audience.

“There should be no intervention ... of elected officials in conversations and treatment patterns between doctors and their patients,” said Perdue, a Democrat, after officially sending the bill back to lawmakers. “I find it repugnant to women and men and families; it’s just wrong.”

The bill provoked strident debate as it moved through the legislature, pushed by Republican lawmakers who control both the House and Senate.

“While in the state Senate, Gov. Perdue routinely voted against funding for abortion, then as governor she vetoes legislation that provides women the information they need when faced with that same procedure,” said Rep. Ruth Samuelson, a Charlotte Republican and the bill’s primary sponsor in the House.

Samuelson said that North Carolina is now in a minority of states that don’t require “special informed consent” before an abortion.

But the bill’s opponents say that doctors already have to provide informed consent for all medical procedures. The special notice requirements in the “Woman’s Right to Know” bill went beyond standard medical practice, directing that women must have an ultrasound and prescribing state-sanctioned materials that women must be issued before an abortion.

The bill “would impose medically unnecessary delays and biased counseling on women seeking abortion care,” said Melissa Reed, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood. “It’s clear that Gov. Perdue, unlike North Carolina’s current House and Senate leadership, trusts women to make personal, private health decisions without government interference.”

When this bill first passed, it was one vote shy of the three-fifths majorities needed to override a veto in both the House and Senate. It’s unclear whether Republicans will be able to muster the votes for an override when they return to Raleigh next month.

Sen. Stan Bingham, a Denton Republican, voted against the bulk of his party and joined Democrats to oppose the bill.

“I’m not inclined to change my mind on this,” Bingham said when asked if he might change his vote on a veto override vote. Bingham said it was possible that the Senate Republican caucus would take a position on the bill, a move that would put pressure on him to change. Senate Republicans have yet to take such a position on any bill this year, he said.

Perdue took action on more than 80 pieces of legislation Monday as she traveled from meetings in Pinehurst to a fundraiser late in the day in Greensboro.

On the way, she stopped at the offices of the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation on Wendover Avenue where more than a dozen people gathered to watch her veto the abortion bill. Lawmakers in the crowd included Sen. Don Vaughan, and Reps. Alma Adams and Pricey Harrison, all Greensboro Democrats, and High Point Democratic Rep. Marcus Brandon.

Also on hand were Reed and others representing Planned Parenthood and other advocacy groups.

When lawmakers suspended their legislative session earlier this month they left the governor more than 220 bills. And because they plan to return in less than a month, Perdue only had 10 days from the time she received those measures to decide whether to sign or veto them. If she does neither within that window, the bill becomes law without her consent.

“The fact that we’ve done more than 200 bills in 10 days, it’s unconscionable, because it’s hard to even read through them, much less sort out whether they’re constitutional,” Perdue said. Normally, a governor would have 30 days to decide whether to sign or veto bills.

With two vetoes she issued while in Greensboro — the second was a technical bill dealing with water lines that she rejected because it was unconstitutional — Perdue has vetoed more bills in 2011 than she and her predecessors did from 1997 through 2010.

House Speaker Thom Tillis, a Cornelius Republican, accused Perdue of having an “overeager veto pen,” but Perdue said she was merely carrying out her due diligence.

“I don’t think it’s partisan at all,” Perdue said. “Several of them are just so extreme that it’s really not what the general people in North Carolina think; it’s out of tune with what the people think.”

She said lawmakers’ push to finish the bulk of their work by mid-June prompted them to rush through bills that ordinarily would not have passed.

“I would believe that in the next year, even the members will be surprised with some of the things that have passed,” Perdue said.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com