On July 29th, 2025, the North Carolina General Assembly overrode Governor Josh Stein’s veto of HB 805—Prevent Sexual Exploitation/Women and Minors with a vote of 72-48 in the State House and 30-19 in the State Senate. Sponsored by Representatives Neal Jackson (R-Moore), Sarah Stevens (R-Surry), and Jennifer Balkcom (R-Henderson), this law started as a bill to prevent the unlawful publishing of pornographic content on the Internet, and also contains provisions that will:
- 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.
In response to this news, NC Family Vice President Mitch Prosser said, “Today is a great day for families in North Carolina! Not only are women and children better protected from the harms of exploitation in pornography, but the enactment of HB 805 also clearly defines male and female in state law based on innate biological sex.”