After warnings of a lawsuit, NC House passes limits on transgender health care for minors
Warnings of litigation didn’t stop North Carolina lawmakers from pushing new transgender health care restrictions through the N.C. House on Wednesday.
On the heels of a court ruling striking down a similar law in Arkansas, a bill restricting public health care facilities from performing certain gender-affirming care continued on its accelerated path. The bill passed on a 66-47 vote in the N.C. House.
Senate Bill 631 would prohibit the use of state funds or public health care facilities like state-run hospitals for various forms of gender-affirming care for transgender minors. That includes puberty-blocking drugs, hormone-replacement therapy or gender transition surgery.
The Republican-backed bill lists public health care facilities that would be barred from providing those services, including the UNC Health system, local health departments and facilities operated under the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
A law with similar provisions was passed in Arkansas in 2021, making it the first state to bar gender-affirming care for transgender youth. It was blocked days before implementation due to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit.
In a victory for the ACLU and transgender advocates, a federal court struck down the law Tuesday for being unconstitutional. Two bills in the N.C. legislature — including SB 631 — included similar language to the Arkansas law, calling into question the legality of the bills in North Carolina.
Despite this, the bill has been on a fast track through the N.C. House this week. It cleared two committees and the House floor after the content of the bill was proposed Tuesday to replace an unrelated bill.
The bill is not an attempt to limit treatment for children suffering from gender dysphoria, but rather to decrease the number of children undergoing “life-altering treatments,” Pitt County Republican Rep. Timothy Reeder said when presenting the bill.
Several Democratic lawmakers brought up the Arkansas court ruling as a point of concern. The ruling emphasized several violations of the U.S. Constitution, Wake County Democratic Rep. Julie von Haefen said.
“Senate Bill 631 will irreparably and unnecessarily harm children and interferes with parents’ rights, something we seem to want to support and champion in certain situations,” she said. “But when it comes to trans children, we don’t care.”
Rep. Marcia Morey, a Durham County Democrat, also cited the Arkansas ruling.
“If we pass this law, it’s just going to cause more litigation,” Morey said on the House floor. “We have indication from federal courts that this is unconstitutional.”
Those concerns were echoed by Democrats earlier in a committee hearing. Democratic Rep. Carla Cunningham said the bill was “chipping away” at the parental rights fought for during the pandemic, when many Republican lawmakers emphasized a parent’s right to decide if their child should be vaccinated for COVID-19.
As the only public speaker in the House rules committee meeting, ACLU of North Carolina senior policy counsel Liz Barber read the Arkansas federal judge’s opinion in permanently blocking its gender-affirming care restrictions.
After the vote, N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore told The News & Observer he did not know the differences between the Arkansas law and the bills put forward in the N.C. legislature, so he would need to compare the two. But a lawsuit against the state wouldn’t be out of the question, the Republican speaker said.
“I would imagine that there will be litigation on that. There is no shortage of lawsuits in North Carolina,” Moore said.
Bills related to trans youth
SB 631 isn’t the only bill limiting gender-affirming care access for transgender youth. There are several bills related to transgender people in various stages in the legislative process.
With session ending in the coming weeks, N.C. Republican lawmakers are expediting legislation through committees, including the handful of transgender-related bills.
House Bill 808 — a similar bill to SB 631 — would bar surgical gender transition procedures and puberty blockers for transgender minors. There are exceptions for children with a few physical disorders. It passed through a Senate committee Wednesday and is scheduled for another hearing Thursday morning.
A ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports was approved by the Senate in a 31-17 vote Tuesday afternoon. The bill — House Bill 574 — gained one Democratic vote, from Cumberland County Sen. Val Applewhite, and moves to the N.C. House for a vote.
SB 631 now goes to the Senate.
This story was originally published June 21, 2023 at 4:35 PM.
