Ohio will ban transitional care after lawmakers overrode the governor's veto

Ohio lawmakers Wednesday Governor Mike DeWine's veto of a bill that would ban transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapy or gender transition surgery was overridden.

The move by the Republican-controlled state Legislature comes less than four weeks after the Republican governor's veto. The state House voted on January 10 to override Mr. DeWine's vetoand the Senate has now cleared the way for the law to take effect in 90 days.

For Ohio residents, this means that only transgender minors who have already begun transition care treatments can receive them. According to a report published in 2022 by the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School, there were approximately 8,500 children between the ages of 13 and 17 in the state who identified as transgender, while approximately 46,500 adults identified as such.

Ohio's legislation is part of a national wave of laws aimed at restricting the rights of transgender minors. Last year, at least 20 states, all with Republican-controlled legislatures, passed bans or restrictions on gender transition care for youth. Only three states had passed gender transition restrictions on medical care for minors before 2023, according to a New York Times analysis.

The Ohio law, which was originally passed by the Legislature in early December, says medical professionals who provide transitional care to minors in violation of the measure could lose their licenses and face legal action.

Those in favor of the legislation argued that parents are often pressured by doctors to sign off on transitional care treatments for their children. But leading medical groups in the United States, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, say such care should be available to minors and oppose legal bans.

The law also bans transgender girls and women from playing on high school or college sports teams that match their gender identity. The bill's provisions are largely consistent with those of other Republican-led states, although some other states' laws do not address the issue of sports teams.

At least 20 states have introduced restrictions on transgender athletes playing on K-12 and collegiate sports teams. In Ohio, as elsewhere, supporters argued they are necessary to protect the safety and integrity of girls' and women's sports. Critics note that such rules affect a very small number of students and could harm the physical and mental health of transgender youth.

At a hearing on Wednesday, state Senator Kristina Roegner, a Republican, urged lawmakers to override the governor's veto, saying that “attempts to change someone's gender are foolish.”

Others said the legislation was dangerous for transgender people. Democratic Senator William DeMora called it “anti-scientific and hateful,” adding that “the inevitable outcome of this bill will be the loss of life.”

Senators voted largely along party lines, with one Republican lawmaker voting against the override.

TransOhio, a transgender advocacy group in the state, condemned the vote.

“Our community is strong and resilient in ways that hateful lawmakers cannot understand, and trans Ohioans across the state cannot and will not be dismissed,” the group said in a statement. “This vote is a blatant disregard for the will of the majority of Ohioans.”

Mr. DeWine's veto was a rare override by a Republican leader in a concerted effort by that party to mobilize cultural conservatives around transgender issues before the 2024 primaries. In the past, Mr. DeWine has pushed the Republican line on other issues as well Leaving the party, such as his first response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In his veto announcement, Mr. DeWine said that if the bill were to become law, “Ohio would be saying that the state, that the government, knows better what is medically best for a child than the two people who love that child most, the parents.” The governor made his decision after visiting hospitals and meeting with families who have been “affected both positively and negatively” by gender-affirming care, a spokesperson said.

After Mr. DeWine vetoed the legislation, he was attacked on social media by former President Donald J. Trump, who said the governor had “fallen to the radical left” and that he hoped the Ohio Legislature would reverse his decision.

Just a week after the veto, Mr. DeWine issued an executive order banning gender transition surgeries for anyone under the age of 18 at state hospitals or outpatient clinics and directed Ohio health authorities to propose rules requiring a team of medical providers, including a endocrinologist, a bioethicist and mental health specialist, to be involved in prescribing gender-affirming care to people. According to the rules, parents should also give explicit permission for all treatments.

The guidelines appeared to add new restrictions on transgender adults that were not included in the bill, a signal that Mr. DeWine may have been trying to compromise with Republican lawmakers. But the governor ultimately stood by his objection to the broader ban on gender-affirming care.

Lawsuits have been filed in more than half of the states that have passed bans on transitional medical care for minors. Litigation in most disputes is still ongoing. In November, transgender youth and their families in Tennessee asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the state's ban on transition care for minors. If the court agrees to hear the case, it would impact state bans across the country, legal experts said.