To Keep Winning, NC Republicans Must Close These 3 Loopholes

by: Sloan Rachmuth

North Carolina is a conservative state.

About 65% of the state's population identifies as "highly religious." State voters hold deeply traditional attitudes and beliefs. This is reflected in the political landscape, where socially conservative policies remain popular among the electorate.

Republicans have controlled the Statehouse since 2010.

And since the presidential election in 2020, the state is leaning further right.

GOP candidates won all seven statewide races. Running on restoring law and order and protecting children from sexual politics in schools, Republicans gained a supermajority in the state Senate in 2022.

Despite the GOP's dominance, North Carolina is more lax about protecting children's safety and parental rights than many far-left states. Parents have taken notice.

To maintain legislative dominance, Republicans must stop these abuses:

Allowing doctors to treat children of any age for psychiatric problems, sexual diseases, and drug addiction without parental knowledge or consent.

Parental rights are severely violated under North Carolina healthcare laws, especially the minor consent law.

Children may receive treatments blocking puberty and sex changes without permission. They can get birth control pills, and treatment for drug abuse at any age behind their parents' backs.

In America's most liberal state, Hawaii, children must be at least 14 to be treated without their parent's knowledge. Progressive states like Rhode Island and New York have minor consent laws starting at 16. In California and Massachusetts, it's 12.

Recently North Carolina Republicans have taken notice of protecting parental rights. Senate Bill 90, the Children's Laws Omnibus, was proposed by Rep. John Torbett in the House last month. It would require parental consent for mental health treatments.

In the next week, Republicans have promised to override Gov. Cooper's veto of the Parent's Rights Bill of Rights. The measure requires school officials to notify parents “of changes in services or monitoring related to his or her child’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.”

Giving doctors and therapists unfettered access to children in schools.

In 2019, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and radical rabble-rouser William Barber led teachers' teachers protest at the General Assembly. Teachers wore stickers reading "FIRST hire more psychologists,” or “FIRST hire more counselors.” The far-left teacher's group NCAE demanded a "trauma-informed" school mental health model popularized in California.

For the left, therapy and "restorative justice" are preferred methods of school discipline and indoctrination.

In 2020, Republicans jumped aboard. They unanimously passed a bill calling for an increase in school social workers, and school psychologists to meet the "social and emotional needs of students."

School counselors can help students deal with stress and depression. They can support students and help them adjust to the challenges of school life.

But now North Carolina schools contract with third parties to offer psychiatric services to students. Many schools have telehealth services to provide medical treatment without leaving the classroom.

For doctors and therapists working in schools, finding patients is like shooting fish in a barrel.

Giving an army of doctors and psychologists access to treat children of all ages for "gender" issues, drug addiction, and sexual issues behind parents' backs is a full assault on the family.

Excluding parents from medical records and healthcare decisions.

Though federal HIPAA laws give parents access to their children’s medical records until they turn 18, the right to access these records falls under state law.

In North Carolina, parents cannot access their child's medical records once they turn 12. Providers often ask parents to step out of the room during exams.

In other Southern states like South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, and Alabama, parents can see their child's records until 18. Even New York state parents aren't shut out of making health decisions for their minor children.

Why do North Carolina lawmakers believe physicians have the right to conduct exams outside parents' control?

GOP legislators are taking steps to regain parental rights and protect children, which is a welcome development. But state lawmakers must continue to aggressively enact family-friendly laws and policies to keep parents voting Republican.