NC Lawmakers Override Veto For Bill Preventing ‘Sexual Exploitation’

The North Carolina state legislature overrode the Democrat governor’s veto of HB805, which seeks to “prevent the sexual exploitation of women and minors,” on Tuesday, passing it into law.

Both the state House and the state Senate voted to override Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of the a Republican sponsored legislation that would officially “recognize two sexes in all administrative rules, regulations, or public policies adopted” by the state, prohibit state funding from going toward trans procedures, and require schools to “adopt policies” enabling parents and students to opt out of curriculum on religious grounds. According to the North Carolina Family Policy Council, the law will also “extend the statute of limitations to ten years for a malpractice action arising out of injury associated with a gender transition procedure.”

The legislation cites Trump’s January executive order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which clarifies that U.S. policy recognizes “two sexes” and directs agencies to end federal funding of transgender ideology.

Gov. Stein vetoed the legislation on July 3, saying he supports the pornography restrictions in the original version of the bill, but he painted the revised version containing the other provisions added in the Senate as a “mean-spirited” attempt “to further divide us by marginalizing vulnerable North Carolinians.” Stein’s veto seemed specifically related to a section added to the legislation that requires state records to include both the “amended” and original version of birth certificates for those who are issued a new one after a sex “change.”

The law still includes multiple provisions similar to those in the original draft of the bill, including restricting online entities and users from publishing pornographic images without the consent of those depicted or without verification that those depicted were at least 18 years old when the content was created. The law also lays out requirements for online entities regarding the removal of pornographic content upon request. HB805 comes more than a year after North Carolina’s “Pornography Age Verification Act,” which seeks to protect minors by requiring user age verification before accessing porn sites, went into effect.

In 2023, the North Carolina legislature overrode several vetoes by previous Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper and passed “three new laws that protect children from … radical gender ideology” by keeping men out of women’s sports, requiring teachers alert parents of their kids’ “gender confusion issues instead of transitioning kids secretly,” and prohibiting “medical professionals from pumping kids full of neutering drugs,” The Federalist’s Jordan Boyd reported.

North Carolina lawmakers also voted to override a number of other vetoes from Stein on Tuesday, although some still require a vote from the House. For example, the state Senate overrode Stein’s veto of the “Freedom to Carry Bill,” meaning the state representatives are now left to decide whether “permitless concealed carry” will be allowed for Tar Heels 18 and over.