Bad NC bills, part 2: Risking public health and treading on your freedom | Opinion
The deadline to file legislation in the North Carolina General Assembly has come and gone, leaving behind a flurry of bills in its wake. I wrote last month about some of the worst bills that had been introduced up to that point. But there are a few more bills that were introduced ahead of the filing deadline that are bad enough to warrant their own attention.
Two of these bills are reflective of the growing Republican push to remove the role of government in protecting public health. And they’re almost certainly terrible ideas.
The first, House Bill 618, is titled the Ivermectin Access Act. It would make ivermectin available at pharmacies over the counter, without a prescription or consultation with a health care professional. The second, House Bill 609, would expand the availability of raw milk to consumers by allowing the retail sale of raw milk and associated products. Neither one of these bills is supported by science. Experts have stressed that the medical benefits of ivermectin are unproven and limited, and high doses of it can be dangerous. Consuming raw milk can lead to foodborne illnesses, which carry serious health risks.
Yet North Carolina is far from the only state where there’s a push to increase access to them. Idaho lawmakers just voted to make ivermectin available over the counter, for example, and a bill that would make it easier for farmers to sell raw milk is moving through the Arkansas legislature. It’s backed by officials at the federal level, as well. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has expressed a desire to loosen federal regulations on raw milk and ivermectin, calling the government’s “suppression” of both substances part of its “war on public health.” It’s part of a larger effort to eschew and discredit the expertise of doctors, scientists and other professionals in the name of “medical freedom.”
This isn’t the only area in which North Carolina lawmakers are looking to deregulate things in potentially dangerous ways. House Bill 470, the Second Amendment Protection Act, would effectively nullify federal gun laws in the state by preventing law enforcement officers from enforcing them. With this bill, North Carolina joins a handful of other states that have sought to nullify federal authority over firearms and become “Second Amendment sanctuary” states.
But at the same time that Republicans seem desperate to remove the government from choices people make about their health and safety — a place the government has always occupied some degree of influence — they’re more than happy to insert the government into places it currently isn’t.
House Bill 595, a rather wide-ranging piece of legislation that places heavy regulations on school library books and curriculum, would prohibit school libraries from having books that “contain material that is harmful to minors” and make it easier to prosecute school librarians for disseminating such material. It also further prohibits instruction on gender identity and sexuality through sixth grade, and creates processes by which parents and community members can offer input on which library books are selected or banned.
Republicans’ definition of freedom also doesn’t include the freedom to choose where you pee. Senate Bill 516, the Women’s Safety and Protection Act, is essentially another version of House Bill 2 — it bans transgender people from using the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity. It also would strip transgender people of the right to change the gender on their birth certificate and driver’s license. Because apparently that’s the government’s business.
Not all of these bills will pass, of course. But each of them is indicative of how national right-wing rhetoric has trickled down to the state level — and they reveal a certain element of hypocrisy in how Republicans view the balance between government intervention and individual freedom. Freedom, it seems, is just whatever they want it to be.
This story was originally published April 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Bad NC bills, part 2: Risking public health and treading on your freedom | Opinion."
