Ohio governor visits hospitals, talks to families as decision on gender-affirming care ban looms

BEXLEY, OH — Ohio's Republican Governor Mike DeWine has visited hospitals and spoken to families helped and harmed by gender-affirming care as he decides what action to take on legislation that prevents minors from receiving such treatments, he told Thursday. The Associated Press in a year-end interview. .

“I'm trying to learn as much as I can to make a good decision,” he said at the meeting at the governor's residence, where he also discussed the implementation of the state's new law on recreational marijuana, term limits, abortion and the death penalty. and the 2024 U.S. Senate race.

DeWine has until Dec. 29 to sign or veto the gender-affirming healthcare bill, which also prevents transgender student athletes from playing girls' and women's sports, or he can allow it to become law without his signature.

He said he cleared his schedule this week to visit three children's hospitals in Ohio — in Akron, Cincinnati and Columbus — to study the issue. He said he is also processing and reading a lot of input from both supporters and opponents of the hot-button legislation.

“We are dealing with children who are going through a difficult time, families who are going through a difficult time,” he said. “I want to do well as best I can.”

Although gender-affirming care has been available in the United States for more than a decade and is supported by major medical associations, more than two dozen states have passed laws as of 2021 that limit or ban such treatments. Most of those states are facing lawsuits, but courts have issued mixed rulings.

On a host of other issues playing out in the Ohio Statehouse, where fellow Republicans control both legislative chambers but are not always aligned with the governor, DeWine's top priority is fixing recreational marijuana policy.

The Ohio House left dangling an eleventh-hour compromise during the holidays that the governor agreed with the Ohio Senate. DeWine said passing legislation that clarifies Ohio law on marijuana sales is crucial.

He said the way the cases were left “creates a ridiculous situation” where Ohioans can legally use and grow cannabis but cannot legally purchase it, and “risks growing the black market.”

“There has to be a sense of urgency,” he said.

The governor did not take a position on whether the Ohio law should be brought into line with a recently passed constitutional amendment enshrining the right to abortion, as House Democrats have proposed, or whether the law should be piecemeal must be decided piecemeal by the courts.

“I think we're all still trying to figure out exactly where we are,” DeWine said. Although he strongly opposed Issue 1, DeWine rejected the idea that Ohio could act to defy it, saying “we follow the Constitution.” However, he added that he is not in favor of removing the “abortion guardrails” that have been put in place over the years, including Ohio's parental consent requirement.

Regarding the 2024 U.S. Senate race, DeWine declined to say whether he will endorse anyone in the three-way Republican primary for a chance to challenge Democrat Sherrod Brown this fall. Candidates include Trump-backed Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan.

“Oh, well, we'll see,” he said. “We have three very qualified people. They are all friends of mine.”

DeWine, 76 and in his final term, said bringing the “science of reading” to Ohio schools will likely be the most important legacy of his time as governor, although the move has spawned an ongoing lawsuit. Lawmakers allocated more than $100 million to make the transition in the last operating budget.

DeWine said a major achievement of 2023 was transforming the state Education Department, renamed the Department of Education and the Workforce, into a Cabinet agency, although the move will also face legal action. His administration also created a new Department of Children and Youth, which houses employees from six different government agencies and is already seeing results, he said.

Economically, the governor said government bond ratings are high, unemployment is low and companies — especially in the technology industry — are flocking to Ohio. “We are a hot state,” he said.

On the possibility of repealing Ohio's eight-year term, something Republican House Speaker Jason Stephens has said he might pursue next year, DeWine said only that he doesn't believe there is support for the change neither in the legislature nor among the voters.

DeWine said he supported term limits when Ohio voted to impose them in 1992 — despite his wife's objections. “My wife Fran told me at the time it was a stupid idea,” he said. “My wife is usually right about things.”

Three years ago this month, DeWine announced to the AP that lethal injection was no longer an option for executions in Ohio, creating what he called an “unofficial moratorium” on the death penalty. Ohio's last execution took place on July 18, 2018.

Earlier this year, a bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation to abolish the practice. DeWine declined to say Thursday whether his overall position on the issue has evolved, or whether he has a position on the repeal legislation. “Unannounceable at this time,” he said.

He said he still holds out hope for a package of gun law changes that has languished in the Legislature since the 2019 Dayton mass shooting.

“A bit jokingly, but seriously, when you're a father of eight and a grandfather of 27, you have to be an optimist,” he said. He characterized the proposal as “very solid” and “consistent with the Second Amendment.”