(The Center Square) – A plurality of registered voters – 47% – think doctors should never be able to prescribe puberty blockers to children. An additional 29% of voters say puberty blockers can be prescribed to minors but only with parental consent.

A nonprofit that represents health care professionals and policy makers opposed to the practice say the polling results reflect a greater understanding of the dangers such care present to children.

“It is not surprising that the more the public learns about the irreversible impact of giving puberty blockers to kids, the more opposition grows to this experimental and risky treatment,” Do No Harm Executive Director Kristina Rasmussen told The Center Square.

The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll found that just 10% of voters think doctors should be allowed to prescribe puberty blockers to children without a parents’ consent. Another 14% of Americans said they weren’t sure about the issue.

Do Not harm last fall published a Stop the Harm database to raise awareness about the issue of gender transitioning children at hospitals and other health facilities across the country. The website hosts a “Dirty Dozen” list of hospitals that it says are “the 12 worst-offending children’s hospitals promoting sex change treatments for minors.”

“For years, the misguided medical establishment has spread misinformation about so-called ‘gender affirming’ treatments for minors, with little to no scrutiny from the media,” Rasmussen said. “At Do No Harm, we are committed to spreading the truth about puberty blockers and other sex change interventions, and will continue to fight against this pseudo-scientific child experimentation.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to restrict transgender drugs and surgeries for minors. Supporters have brought legal challenges over some of the state-level bans. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering the issue.

The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll was conducted by Noble Predictive Insights from April 15-18, 2025, and surveyed registered voters nationally via an opt-in online panel and text-to-web cell phone messages. The sample included 2,527 respondents, comprised of 1,089 Republicans, 1,187 Democrats, and 251 True Independents, which Noble Predictive defines as independents who chose neither when asked if they lean toward one of the major parties. It is one of only six national tracking polls in the U.S.

The margin of error was +/- 2.0%.

(The Center Square) – With seven days available for appeal, a federal judge on Monday evening ordered the North Carolina State Board of Elections to certify Allison Riggs the winner over Jefferson Griffin in the election for eight years in Seat 6 of the state Supreme Court

Chief Justice Richard Myers, presiding in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina Western Division, said the state board “shall not take any action in furtherance of the North Carolina Court of Appeals and Supreme Court’s orders.” Griffin, the Republican challenger and a justice on the state’s appellate court, was denied motions for injunctive relief.

This is the nation’s last unresolved election, one that drew in $2.3 million in campaign donations. The filing says, “The court’s order is stayed for 7 days, so that Judge Griffin may pursue an appeal if he so chooses.” At the time of ruling, Monday marked 182 days since Election Day.

On Election Night, with 2,658 precincts reporting, Griffin led Riggs by 9,851 votes of 5,540,090 cast. Provisional and absentee ballots that qualified were added to the totals since, swinging the race by 10,585 votes.

Riggs has been poised for a 734-vote win. Griffin protested about 65,000 ballots on multiple counts, and the state board rejected all of them. Most were by 3-2 party-line votes.

Board of elections decisions and court rulings – Wake County Superior Court, state Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, and 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – had pared that initial number down to somewhere between 1,675 and 5,700 for this decision by Myers.

The protests the state board denied included registration records of voters, such as lack of providing either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number.

Other ballots protested and denied by the state board included voters overseas who have never lived in the United States, and for lack of photo identification provided with military and overseas voters. Myers’ ruling is the final blow to these protests.

Griffin is trying to become the sixth Republican in a row to win a seat on the state’s Supreme Court. Democrats held a 6-1 edge going into the 2020 election and lost three state Supreme Court races, reducing their advantage to 4-3. In 2022, Republicans won both races to gain their 5-2 majority.

The Supreme Court bench has historically been both nonpartisan and partisan. The General Assembly, under majority Democrats, changed the bench to nonpartisan for the 2004 election cycle; Republicans, in majority, changed it back after the 2016 election cycle.

Riggs has been recused from all actions involving the state Supreme Court. She remains seated until the election is resolved. Griffin is a judge on the state Court of Appeals and has been recused from all actions there as well.

Riggs is trying to win her first judicial election and as an incumbent no less, appointed by then-Gov. Roy Cooper nine months after he had appointed her to the Court of Appeals following her 14-year stint with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.

Griffin earned his eight-year seat on the appellate bench with a 2020 win over Democrat Chris Brook. He had lost two years earlier to Toby Hampson in a three-way race that included two Republicans.

(The Center Square) – Some 64% of registered voters want the government to regulate emergency artificial intelligence and 40% are concerned about losing their job to AI.

The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll found that 33% of voters think Al poses a threat to humanity and the Al industry must be regulated by the federal government while 31% think Al will eliminate many jobs (but isn’t a threat to humanity) and the federal government must regulate the Al industry. Another 13% think the Al industry should not be regulated, but the government should help people who lose their jobs to Al.

Some 7% think the Al industry should not be regulated and existing unemployment programs are good enough for people who might lose a job to Al. Twice as many – 14% – said they weren’t sure how to deal with AI.

“Most people don’t work in AI, so they don’t see any harm in regulating the industry. Think of it this way – if you’re a normal person going to a normal job, you don’t lose anything by regulating AI. So if you’re at all worried about AI upending the economy or even harming people, then there’s only benefits to restricting AI,” said David Byler, head of research at Noble Predictive Insights. “AI boosters would disagree with this idea – they see regulating AI as choking off innovation and stalling progress. But it’s easy to see how an everyday person could see some upside in regulation and no real downside in their daily life.”

About 40% of voters are worried about losing their job to AI. About 14% of registered voters said they were “very worried” about losing their job to future AI automation. An additional 24% said they were “somewhat worried” while 21% reported being “not very worried” and 30% said they were “not at all worried.” Another 8% said they weren’t sure. 

The poll comes as governments at the local, state, and federal levels craft approaches to dealing with powerful technology.

In 2024, at least 45 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C., introduced AI bills, and 31 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands adopted resolutions or enacted legislation, according to a National Conference of State Legislatures report.

Colorado recently passed AI legislation that requires developers and deployers of high-risk AI systems to use reasonable care to avoid algorithmic discrimination and requires disclosures to consumers. Florida lawmakers provided grants to school districts to implement AI to help students and teachers. Some states took a more basic approach. For example, Indiana created an AI task force.

The poll was conducted by Noble Predictive Insights from April 15-18, 2025, and surveyed registered voters nationally via an opt-in online panel and text-to-web cell phone messages. The sample included 2,527 respondents, comprised of 1,089 Republicans, 1,187 Democrats, and 251 True Independents, which Noble Predictive defines as independents who chose neither when asked if they lean toward one of the major parties. It is one of six national tracking polls in the U.S.

The margin of error was +/- 2.0%.