Ohio House overrides Republican governor’s veto of ban on gender affirming care for minors
Columbus, Ohio — The Republican-dominated Ohio House voted Wednesday to override GOP Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of legislation that would ban gender-affirming care for minors and limit the participation of transgender women and girls on sports teams, a move that LGBTQ+ activists say would seriously limit the daily life of transgender people. youth in the state.
This amendment brings a ban on gender-affirming surgeries and hormone therapies closer to law and imposes restrictions on mental health care for transgender people under the age of 18. The legislation also bans transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports teams at both primary and secondary schools. collegiate level.
DeWine previously said he vetoed legislation to protect parents and children from excessive government oversight of medical decisions.
The House voted to override the veto 65-28 along party lines. The Republican-majority Senate is expected to take its own override vote on Jan. 24.
Rep. Gary Click, a Republican Baptist minister from Sandusky County and sponsor of the bill, has maintained that the measures protect children who cannot give informed consent to such life-changing care. He hopes the transfer, and possibly related future legislation, will encourage doctors and other individuals who may be afraid to testify against gender-affirming care for minors to come forward and express their opinions.
“We must ensure that our medical institutions are not taken over by ideology,” Click said.
Rep. Beth Liston, a Democratic Party pediatrician from Columbus, said on the floor that she had difficulty “understanding the arrogance of the people in this room” who voted to override the veto and enact these bans. because they are not medical or medicinal in nature. mental health professionals.
Liston went on to encourage the LGBTQ+ community, saying there was still hope and pointing to recent votes by Ohioans to enshrine abortion rights in the Constitution and legalize marijuana as proof that the people can still influence these prohibited.
At least 22 states have now passed laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and many of those states are facing lawsuits. Courts have issued mixed rulings, with the nation’s first law, in Arkansas, struck down by a federal judge who said the care ban violated the due process rights of transgender youth and their families. Enforcement has been blocked in some states, while laws have been introduced in others.
The care has been available in the United States for more than a decade and is endorsed by major medical associations.
At least 20 states have passed some version of a blanket ban on transgender athletes playing on K-12 schools and collegiate sports teams statewide, but a Biden administration proposal to ban such outright bans will be finalized in March, after two delays and many setbacks. As proposed, the rule would determine that a blanket ban would violate Title IX, the landmark gender equality legislation passed in 1972.
DeWine vetoed the bill on December 29 last year, and then signed an executive order on January 5 announcing proposed regulations intended to address some of the elements the bill covered while leaving non-surgical gender-affirming care for minors, such as puberty, was allowed. blockers and hormone treatments, to continue.
The executive order bans gender-affirming surgeries for minors, even though medical professionals say they haven’t taken place anyway.
DeWine’s proposals, in addition to his executive order, have drawn fierce criticism from both proponents of the bans and their opponents. The proposals include mandating a “contractual relationship” with medical care teams for both transgender children and adults, and comprehensive and long-term mental health programs before any treatment or surgery.
None of DeWine’s rules address the sports ban provision. He told reporters last week that he would not address that specific ban and felt gender-affirming care was more important at the moment. In the House of Representatives, Republicans continued to insist that such bans were about fairness and protection for girls and women and sports, while Democrats labeled them as bullying children.
DeWine’s break with his party’s status quo, which he has touted as a “pro-life” decision, even with his proposed regulations has drawn backlash from fellow Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, and from conservative Christian groups. Trump posted on Truth Social that DeWine had fallen to the “radical left,” that he was “done” with the Ohio governor and urged lawmakers to set this aside.
Less than 24 hours before DeWine’s veto, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who is currently running for governor in 2026, expressed support for the social media ban and said he hoped the measure would become law.
While opponents like Democrats, families with transgender children and LGBTQ+ people are pushing back against the veto, with potential legal challenges being explored after the expected Senate override, they are also unhappy with DeWine’s proposals.
Equality Ohio, an organization that works to protect the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, said in a statement that “as drafted, the proposed rules fundamentally change the way Ohio’s medical systems operate and improve care for existing patients, including adults , disrupt” and that DeWine’s proposals would impose broader rules. regulations for the transgender community.
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Samantha Hendrickson is a staff member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.