This week, the North Carolina Senate amended and advanced a multifaceted, pro-family bill through the Senate Judiciary and Rules committees. HB 805—Prevent Sexual Exploitation/Women and Minors began in the House as a bill to prevent the unlawful publishing of pornographic content on the Internet. On Wednesday, June 18, the Senate Judiciary Committee took up HB 805 for consideration and added a number of significant provisions to the bill. The Senate Rules Committee approved the bill Thursday morning.

The amended version of HB 805 preserves the original language of the bill and adds measures that would:

• Define “male” and “female” based on biological sex in state statute, administrative rules, and state regulations;
• Prohibit the use of state taxpayer funds to pay for puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, or surgical gender transition procedures for prisoners incarcerated in the state prison system;
• Extend the statute of limitations to ten years for a malpractice action arising out of injury associated with a gender transition procedure;
• Direct local boards of education to adopt policies to allow a student or the student’s parent to request that the student be excused from classroom activities or instruction that would impose a substantial burden on the student’s religious beliefs; and
• Direct local boards of education to adopt policies to provide online access to a catalog of all library books available at a school, and to allow parents the opportunity to prohibit their child from borrowing any books from the library that the parent’s deem objectionable.

HB 805 now proceeds to the Senate floor for consideration, and if approved, will return to the State House for concurrence with the changes made to the bill in the State Senate.