Gov. Josh Stein (D-NC) issued an executive order aimed at protecting abortion in the Tar Heel State, just weeks after taking office.

Stein, a Democrat, governs over a state that has large GOP majorities in both state houses, and an abortion law that bans the practice after 12 weeks. On Thursday, he issued the executive order, which calls on state Cabinet agencies not to cooperate with attempts to prosecute or penalize “medical professionals providing lawful reproductive health care services or patients obtaining lawful reproductive health care.”

“Our state has seen alarming attacks on women’s reproductive rights over the past few years, and I remain committed to doing everything in my power to protect women’s freedoms and their privacy,” Stein said in a statement Thursday.

“I am directing my cabinet agencies to take specific action to protect women and health care providers from extreme anti-reproductive freedom laws,” Stein added.

Other actions the order does include calling on state Cabinet agencies to work to protect “lawful reproductive health care services” in the state.

In the southeastern part of the country, most states have strict abortion laws protecting unborn babies from the time of a fetal heartbeat, roughly six weeks, or for all phases of pregnancy, with limited exceptions.

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Virginia has the loosest abortion laws in the South, allowing for abortion through viability, while North Carolina’s 12-week law is the second-loosest in the region.

Stein, who entered the governorship at the beginning of the year, will have more power than his Democratic predecessor did in lawmaking, as Republicans lost their supermajority in the state House in last year’s elections. The 12-week abortion law was passed by Republicans by overriding former Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto.