The Ohio Senate voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of House Bill 68, which will protect minors from experimental transgender treatments euphemistically referred to as “gender-affirming care” and safeguard fairness in women’s sports.
The override passed the Senate 23-9 Wednesday, after passing the House of Representatives, 65-28, on Jan. 10.
HB 68, the Enact Ohio Saving Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act, will bar physicians from performing gender-reassignment surgery on a minor and from prescribing cross-sex hormones or drugs to block puberty for the purpose of gender transition. It also will enable students to sue if they are deprived of a fair playing field in sports due to gender activism and protect parents’ rights to raise their children according to their biological sex.
DeWine, a Republican, vetoed the bill on Dec. 29 after it passed both houses by veto-proof majorities.
DeWine framed his veto as an effort to bring consensus on a divisive issue and to avoid having the government decide what medical decisions are best for children. He insisted that a bureaucratic rulemaking process would be more likely to produce rules that would survive legal challenges. Similar laws restricting experimental gender interventions have faced court challenges, although many have survived legal scrutiny.
The governor echoed pro-transgender activists who claim that minors with gender dysphoria (the painful and persistent condition of identifying with the gender other than their biological sex) will commit suicide if they can’t take hormones or undergo other “treatments” to make their bodies resemble those of the opposite sex.
DeWine signed an “emergency” executive order one week after vetoing the bill. His order only banned sex-reassignment surgeries for minors, while the bill also bans cross-sex hormones and so-called puberty blockers for children. DeWine’s order also did not address males competing in women’s sports.
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