North Carolina State Legislative Building / Adobe Stock
North Carolina lawmakers voted July 29 to override Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of a wide-ranging bill that strengthens parental rights, protects children, and reaffirms biological sex in state law.
The House voted 72-48 to override the veto, and the Senate followed suit later that day. House Bill 805, titled “Prevent Sexual Exploitation/Women and Minors,” is now set to become law.
The North Carolina Values Coalition, a Christian nonpartisan network, hailed the override as a “resounding victory for truth, safety, and parental rights,” in a July 29 statement emailed to CatholicVote.
“We applaud the NC House and Senate for taking this needed and common-sense step to protect women and girls, and to reaffirm parental rights in our state,” North Carolina Values Coalition Executive Director Tami Fitzgerald added in a July 29 press release.
The new law defines sex based on biology rather than gender identity, prohibits girls and boys in K-12 from sharing overnight accommodations in school settings, and bans taxpayer funding of “gender transition” procedures for prison inmates. It also gives parents the right to access school libraries and block specific books from being loaned to their children.
The bill also allows detransitioners to sue medical providers for malpractice and mandates age verification on pornography websites to help protect children.
As CatholicVote previously reported, the General Assembly passed the bill earlier this year. On July 3, Stein vetoed it, calling it “mean-spirited.” In a statement, he said the measure would “marginalize vulnerable people” and “undermine the quality of public services and public education.”
CatholicVote Vice President Joshua Mercer praised the bill in a statement ahead of the July 29 vote as a commonsense measure that “few rational people would object” to. He added that it is “a landmark bill containing a set of new laws protecting the safety and innocence of children.”
