April 21st marked the official start of the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) “short session”. As part of the NCGA’s biennial (two-year) legislative session, the spring of every even year is when the legislature comes back to Raleigh to make adjustments to the new budget. In 2025’s “long” legislative session, however, NCGA leadership failed to come to agreement on its primary job, creating and passing a new state budget. North Carolina is the only state in the country without a current state budget. This is not a healthy state of affairs for North Carolina residents, and we need to spend the next few weeks contacting our lawmakers to demand they do better.

No new budget impacts our state in numerous ways, particularly in combination with cuts seen this past year to the federal budget. There are no raises for teachers or state employees, funding gaps in public health programs, little to no resources to replace lost federal spending for critical safety and disaster recovery programs, and rural healthcare facilities and public schools that are forced to try to do so much more with much less.

One reason for this impasse in the 2025 legislative session was that there appeared to be little urgency or prioritization of this critical legislation from NCGA leadership. As we shared during the 2025 session, legislative leadership often mirrored the hyper-partisan priorities of the federal administration rather than address the pressing economic, health equity, and disaster recovery issues facing our state. 

You can see a list of some of those bills, both good and bad, that we were watching last year here.  While our reproductive freedom champions’ proactive bills never even got hearings, we appreciated the introduction of these bills that would hold anti-abortion centers accountable, expand access to reproductive health care, and protect our rights and freedoms. As compared to bills that scapegoated and attacked marginalized populations, seeing these bold people-centered policies introduced is a reminder of what can be done when we have elected officials who use their power to protect their constituents, rather than to consolidate their own power and wealth. With Election Day coming up in just six months, we will have an opportunity to cast our ballots for candidates who share our values.

Before Election Day arrives, however, we have the imperative right now to remind our elected officials that they are in office to serve us, not the other way around. Call and email your legislators in the North Carolina House and Senate and demand they pass a comprehensive and robust budget that prioritizes people, not corporations. Demand that they focus on how they can improve the lives of all state residents, rather than continue cutting taxes for the most wealthy. Share with them your priorities, such as protecting access to healthcare, protecting and funding Medicaid and other health programs, and supporting our public schools.

Some of our legislative champions will be introducing excellent and necessary bills to hold anti-abortion centers accountable for the tax dollars they receive, to improve maternal health, and to ensure pregnant people can get the critical healthcare they need when they need it. Pro-Choice North Carolina will be sending out email alerts when those bills are filed. If you are not on our mailing list, sign up here! 

To prepare for this legislative session: 

• Make sure you know who represents you in the North Carolina General Assembly, so you can reach out quickly once bills are introduced and votes are scheduled. 
• Not sure how to advocate with your legislators? You can download our Advocacy Training slide deck here. 

This 2025-26 legislative session has so far been a shameful dereliction of duty on the part of our legislators. Call and email them to demand that they put North Carolinians first!