Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s administration renounced its plans to enact regulations that, according to proponents, may have limited adult health care that is gender-affirming in a way that no other state has.
The guidelines put forth by two state departments would have mandated that psychologists, endocrinologists, and medical ethicists play a role in developing gender-affirming treatment plans for clinics and hospitals. Additionally, before beginning hormone therapy or having gender-affirming surgeries, patients under the age of 21 would have needed at least six months of counseling.
After receiving public feedback, the Department of Health and the Departments of Mental Health and Addiction Services released revised ideas on Wednesday. Both claimed in notes that as transgender individuals and care services were weighed in, they were moved by what they had learned. The Health Department reported receiving 3,900 responses. The rules would only be applicable to the care of minors, not adults, in the new versions.
21 states have passed legislation recently outlawing at least some aspects of gender-affirming treatment for minors. Some are so new that they haven’t yet gone into effect, and an Arkansas ban was overturned in court. However, adult care has only been limited in Florida thus far.
The agencies announced that the rules would then go through the final review stage before being put into effect.
Before receiving gender-affirming treatments or surgeries, patients under the age of 18 must also complete at least six months of mental health counseling, according to the revised rules. Clinical nurses, social workers, school therapists, and some doctors were added to the list of mental health professionals who are qualified to provide the necessary guidance as a result of the revisions made on Wednesday.
Additionally, a clinical ethicist may no longer be required to participate in the creation of facility-wide treatment plans for the treatment. The Health Department stated in a memo that the change was made in part because institutions now use health ethics consultants to create policies.
The changes, according to Siobhan Boyd-Nelson, co-interim executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Ohio, “will be a huge relief to thousands of trans people receiving care in Ohio who have spent the last few weeks scrambling to make contingency plans in case their care is cut off.”
However, she claimed that there are still significant issues with the remaining provisions and that the agencies should have completely revoked the proposed rules.
Some of the guidelines for providing care for children may include a muffled impact. By overriding DeWine’s December veto of that legislation, which would have allowed children currently receiving therapy to continue, the Legislature outlawed gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatments for minors last month.
In April, that law will go into effect.
