Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of Ohio House Bill 68 was overridden by the Ohio Senate by a vote of 23 to 9. This legislation would forbid transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming medical care and prohibit them from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
On January 10, the Ohio House voted to override the veto.
The bill places limitations on transgender youth’s access to hormone therapy, surgeries, and puberty blockers. The bill specifically makes an exception for intersex youth with ambiguous or irregular sexual characteristics and does not limit the use of this care to non-transgender youth.
A grandfather clause permits trans people who are currently receiving care to continue doing so.
According to physicians, families, and patients frequently have lengthy discussions to discuss age-appropriate, specialized approaches to treatment, according to ABC News. They claim that this often starts with mental health care.
According to doctors questioned by ABC News, puberty blockers are a reversible form of gender-affirming care for young people who are on the verge of going through puberty and allow children to explore their gender identity without the development of permanent sex characteristics (e.g., breasts, genitalia) that may cause additional stress.
The physical appearance of an older teen is helped to match their gender identity through hormone treatment. Patients are given testosterone or estrogen, and the effects of these drugs are gradual and partly reversible.
Adolescent surgery is uncommon and is only considered on a case-by-case basis, according to doctors who have told ABC News.
In December 2023, DeWine vetoed the bill, stating that he thought it would harm transgender youth and make it difficult for people to decide after consulting those who would be affected.
DeWine stated in the Dec. 29 press conference that “the decisions that kids are making are not quick decisions.” These extremely difficult decisions should not be made by the government. The state of Ohio shouldn’t make them. The people who love these children the most should make them. And those are the parents—the families who raised the child and witnessed that child experience pain.
Nevertheless, he concurred with a number of issues raised by the bill.
Otherwise, he suggested regulations to control gender-affirming care that would be less likely to face legal challenges, such as restrictions on minor surgery.
DeWine stated in a statement dated December 29 that “none of the individuals I talked to talked about surgery.” “In the conversation, that was not where they were going. And I genuinely believe that there is a misconception out there that, you know, this goes straight to surgery. Simply put, it doesn’t. We don’t perform surgeries, according to all the children’s hospitals.”
Access to gender-affirming care has been restricted in at least 21 states, many of which have encountered legal challenges.
A federal judge ruled that a law prohibiting gender-affirming care for adolescents in Arkansas was unlawful, and similar rules have been blocked in Georgia, Indiana, Idaho, Texas, and Montana, while legal action is being considered.
DeWine also suggested putting limitations on “pop-up clinics” that serve the trans community as well as reporting and data collection on those who receive care in order to better monitor the quality of care.
According to DeWine, “I firmly believe that administrative rules that will probably have a better chance of surviving judicial review and being adopted can be used to address several objectives in House Bill 68.”
More than 20 major national medical associations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and American Medical Association, have deemed gender-affirming treatment to be safe and effective. According to the AMA, this treatment may be medically necessary to enhance the physical and mental health of trans people.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, trans children are more likely to encounter anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts as a result of gender dysphoria and discrimination.
According to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, hormone therapy can improve the mental wellbeing of transgender children and adolescents.
DeWine responded, “Focusing on the part of the bill that I thought affected the most people and by far,” referring to the gender-affirming care section, when asked what he thought about the sports restrictions in the legislation.
Transgender women would also be prohibited from participating in sports by the bill. It would take the place of the state’s current transgender sports participation regulations, which mandate that trans women undergo hormone therapy for at least a year or show that they have no physical or physiological advantages over genetically female athletes.
A transgender man must now show that his muscle mass developed as a result of testosterone treatment and does not exceed the muscle mass standard of typical biological males in order to participate in sports. Therefore, every three to six months, estrogen levels are checked.
However, the Ohio Constitution states that “no bill may include more than one subject, which must be clearly expressed in its title,” as Rep. Richard D. Brown noted during the House discussion on the bill. It is questionable if this will make the bill’s
course more difficult.
According to this law, doctors in Ohio who provide any gender-affirming medical care for trans youth would become “subject to discipline by the appropriate professional licensing board.”
Mary Kekatos of ABC News contributed to this article.
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