2023 NASW-NC Legislative Session Update: Week 25
This week the Supreme Court issued their rulings on several highly anticipated cases.
NASW issued the following statement: Deeply Disappointed by Recent Supreme Court Rulings - Following the trend set with last year's Dobbs decision, the rulings continue to systematically dismantle the rights, opportunities, and protections afforded to Americans across the country. Read more : https://buff.ly/3PA05L9
Independent State Legislatures - Moore v. Harper: In a major win for voting rights & for checks and balances, SCOTUS ruled against NC Speaker of the House Tim Moore in his petition to reinstate the state legislature's gerrymandered voting map after the North Carolina Supreme Court struck it down for violating the state constitution. The "independent state legislature" theory, which contends the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution provides state legislators alone the power to govern federal elections unencumbered by traditional oversight from state constitutions, courts and governors was also struck down by the court.
Affirmative Action -Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College :The conservative majority SCOTUS ruled against UNC-Chapel Hill’s race-conscious undergraduate admissions policy, saying the university’s consideration of race in admissions is a violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This decision ends affirmative action in higher education. This ruling could harm women & diversity, equity and inclusion in corporate America & prompt more Black people to enroll in HBCUs. Read NASW Member Voices column to learn more: NASW Member Voices: Supreme Court Ends Affirmative Action: What are the Implications?
Student Loan Forgiveness Program-Department of Education v. Brown: The Supreme Court ruled against the Department of Education's student loan forgiveness plan. It primarily granted between $10-$20K in debt relief to those making less than $75K a year. NASW had pushed the President to offer student loan relief and is disappointed SCOTUS has struck down President Biden's student loan relief plan. Despite this setback, we will continue to advocate for debt relief for social workers.
LGBTQ Consumer Protections - 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis: NASW is disappointed that the Supreme Court ruled on behalf of a Colorado website designer who refused to work with a same sex couple based on her religious beliefs. Our association will continue battling for LGBTQIA2S+ rights, which you can find more information about on our resource page under Practice and LGBTQIA2 on socialworkers.org https://buff.ly/43aIsES
Slate of Hate Passed by NC Republicans during last week of Pride Month
SB 49: Parents' Bill of Rights -passed both NC House and Senate along party lines. NASW-NC Opposed this bill. A bill very similar to Florida's notorious "Don't Say Gay" bill. This legislation targets educators, healthcare professionals, school social workers and LGBTQ+ youth and families for discrimination and exclusion.
HB 808: Gender Transition/Minors. Passed NC Senate. Sent to the Governor's desk for signature/veto. NASW-NC Opposed this bill. Prohibits all medical professionals from providing gender-affirming care to minors, with some exceptions. This includes performing gender transition procedures and providing puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones, and no state funds can be used.
Read NC Health News: Health care landscape for LGBTQ+ North Carolinians is uncertain as bills affecting their community take shape
Secretary Kinsley Recognizes Pride Month 2023 (video) NCDHHS Secretary Kody Kinsley commemorates Pride Month 2023 and shares how NCDHHS is addressing health disparities within LGBTQ+ communities.
As of July 1, 2023, people will not be able to access abortion care in North Carolina past 12 weeks. The provision forcing survivors of sexual assault to get abortion care in a hospital after 12-weeks of pregnancy does not go into effect until October 1, 2023. People will still be able to access medication abortion through 11-weeks of pregnancy (this is not changing). There was a lawsuit filed against SB 20, and in response, the NC General Assembly approved House Bill 190, which clarifies several vague or contradictory provisions in S.B. 20, including allowing medication abortion to be available beyond the 10-week period that the bill had arbitrarily imposed and clarifying that providers cannot be prosecuted for fetal homicide when they provide lawful abortions. As a result of the clarity provided by H.B. 190, many of the claims brought by the abortion provider plaintiffs in their legal challenge are no longer necessary for the court to address, mitigating some of the harm S.B. 20 will have on patients' lives once in effect. A federal court temporarily blocked one provision of SB 20 until July 14th, and is the final word before the law is enacted.
Statement from Jenny Black, President & CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic: “Starting tomorrow, North Carolinians will no longer be able to access abortion after the 12th week of pregnancy, and they will be forced to endure medically unnecessary restrictions that make it harder to get the health care they need even before 12 weeks. Our legal challenge forced General Assembly leadership to clean up their mess of a bill, but we never should have had to sue to get clarity on how to comply with this law. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic remains committed to providing abortion care to as many people as possible within the unjust and inhumane confines of this abortion ban, and we encourage anyone in need of abortion care to contact us as soon as possible for help navigating this new reality.”
Source: Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic
Bills of Interest:
HB 762 - School Social Workers/Master's Pay as a stand alone bill was heard in the House Education Committee on May 30th. Master's Level Pay for School Social Workers was included in the Governor's & House versions of the Budget. However, it was cut from the Senate version. NASW-NC and the NC School Social Workers Association (NCSSWA) were present at the NC General Assembly to advocate for this legislation. It passed unanimously out of the House Education Committee and is now in the Appropriations Committee, where we hope it will be included in the final version of the 2023 Budget.
Social Work Interstate Licensure Compact Update
SB 718 was not subjected to the final bill crossover deadline of May 4th. This means we still have the rest of the 2023 Legislative Session to get the bill passed in both chambers and signed into law by Governor Cooper. We are optimistic the bill will pass. Since only Republican-sponsored bills have moved this session, we are pitching the Compact as primarily a bill to support military spouses. The Social Work Compact creation was initiated by the Department of Defense to promote licensure portability for military spouses. You can read about that here: Interstate Licensure Compact for Social Work (socialworkers.org) A large number of Republican lawmakers, who have the supermajority in both the House and Senate, are very supportive of bills that support military populations and NASW-NC is working on getting support to advance the bill before session ends. Please be on the lookout for action alerts to contact your legislators to support the Social Work Licensure Compact.
More information about the Social Work Licensure Compact can be found here: https://swcompact.org
Thank you to the members of NASW-NC for supporting the advocacy work we do. We would not be able to advocate for the social work profession or social justice issues in North Carolina without a robust and engaged NASW membership. If you are a social worker and not a member, we ask that you join NASW today. Our voice is louder with your membership.
Learn more about NASW-NC membership here.
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