A political advertisement claimed that one of North Carolina’s most powerful legislators “killed” a bill that would’ve banned sex-reassignment surgeries for minors.
The video ad, paid for by the Guilford-Rockingham Alliance political action committee, is airing in North Carolina’s 26th Senate District. That’s where state Sen. Phil Berger, the Senate leader, is hoping to fend-off a Republican primary challenge from Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page.
Here’s a transcript of the ad:
“Phil Berger claims he supports Trump, but in Raleigh he acts like a Democrat.
Phil Berger worked with Roy Cooper to repeal the law that kept men out of women’s bathrooms.
And in 2021, Phil Berger killed a bill banning sex-change surgeries for minors.
Phil Berger even voted with open-border Democrats, creating a loophole that let illegal immigrants stay in America for longer.”
Berger and other Republican legislators did strike a deal in 2017 to repeal North Carolina’s 2016 bathroom lawknown as HB2, which banned transgender people from using the bathroom of the gender they identify as in all city, county and state buildings. And in 2013, Berger and other Republican legislators passed a law allowing farmers to hire seasonal workers for longer periods of time without undergoing a background check.
But did Berger really block a bill that would’ve banned sex-reassignment surgeries for minors?
No. The ad misrepresents what happened with a failed 2021 bill and overlooks the fact that Republican legislators — including Berger — enacted a ban on sex-reassignment surgeries for minors just two years later.
Failed 2021 bill
The ad refers to Senate Bill 514introduced by three Republican legislators on April 5, 2021. The bill would have banned sex-reassignment surgery for people under age 21. Medical professionals who violated the law could have had their license revoked and faced civil fines of up to $1,000 per occurrence.
A day after the bill was introduced, it was referred to the Committee on Rules and Operations of the Senate — where it never received a hearing. Every bill proposed in the state Legislature is referred to one or more committees. When they’re sent directly to the rules committee, as this bill was, that’s an unofficial way for chamber leadership to indicate the idea is dead-on-arrival and won’t get attention during the session.
To back up the ad’s claim, the alliance cited Associated Press articles published by Courthouse News Service and WFAE. The article published on the WFAE website April 6, 2021, describes the bill when it was introduced. The April 20, 2021, article on the CNS website explains why the bill didn’t become law.
The AP reported that the Senate wouldn’t hold a vote on the ban.
“We do not see a pathway to Senate Bill 514 becoming law,” Berger spokesman Pat Ryan told the AP at the time. He added that “the bill will not be voted on the Senate floor.”
Ryan, who now runs a public relations firm, told PolitiFact that the Senate didn’t take up the bill because Republicans didn’t have enough votes in the Senate and House to override a likely veto by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. To override a veto, Republicans would’ve needed Democrats to also vote for the bill, which Ryan said was an unlikely proposition at the time.
As Senate leader, Berger wields immense power over which bills make it to the floor, though there are procedural avenues senators can take to advance a bill against his wishes.
PolitiFact asked the Guilford-Rockingham Alliance why the group believes Berger “killed” the bill. In an email, a spokesperson for the group said Berger allowed votes on other bills that were destined to be vetoed. “The decision not to allow a vote in 2021 therefore reflects a discretionary leadership choice, not a procedural inevitability,” the alliance’s statement said.
Former state Sen. Jim Perry, who served as the Republican majority whip in 2021, told PolitiFact that legislative leaders consider multiple factors when deciding whether to vote on a bill: Can it become law? If not, should legislators hold a vote anyway to put pressure on the opposition? Will the opposition use news of the vote to raise money for their party?
Perry said he didn’t remember exactly why Berger decided not to hold the vote. But he agreed with Berger’s assessment that it was doomed, saying it’s “absurd” for the alliance to suggest Berger “killed” the legislation.
“The fact that it was passed in the near future should make his position very clear,” Perry said.
State Sen. Ralph Hise, a Mitchell County Republican and top Berger lieutenant who sponsored the 2021 bill, called the alliance’s ad a lie. “The reason North Carolina now bans sex change surgeries and hormones for minors is because of Sen. Berger’s leadership,” Hise told PolitiFact.
PolitiFact asked the alliance if it had evidence that the bill would’ve become law if Berger had allowed a vote. The alliance said: “The fact that Phil Berger wouldn’t allow the people’s representatives to decide is the point.”
Bill passes in 2023
By 2023, the landscape had changed: Republicans had enough legislative seats to override gubernatorial vetoes without needing help from Democrats.
That June, the House and Senate passed House Bill 808 — which, like the 2021 bill, prohibited medical professionals from performing surgical sex-reassignment procedures on minors under threat of losing their license. That July, Cooper vetoed the bill. And that August, the bill became state law after both chambers voted to override Cooper’s veto. No Democrats voted for the bill in the Senate.
The Guilford-Rockingham Alliance said Berger’s support for the 2023 bill, “does not negate the consequences of his decision not to advance the bill in 2021,” adding that “individuals were affected” because Berger didn’t allow senators to vote on the bill.
Our ruling
The Guilford-Rockingham Alliance said Berger “killed a bill banning sex change surgeries for minors.”
That’s a misrepresentation of what happened. Berger was Senate leader in 2021 when he referred such a bill to the rules committee, stalling its progress. Berger’s spokesperson at the time said the measure did not have the votes needed to make it law should the Democratic governor, Cooper, veto the measure, as he was likely to do.
Two years later, that landscape changed when Republicans secured enough seats to override any vetoes the Democratic governor might issue. Republican legislators — including Berger — enacted a ban on sex-reassignment surgeries for minors, passing it into law over Cooper’s veto.
The ad mentions none of that. Its statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. That’s our definition of Mostly False.
