Gov. DeWine vetoes House Bill 68 on transgender medical care, sports

Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday struck down legislation that would have banned transgender girls from female sports and restricted the medical care of transgender minors.

House Bill 68, which cleared the House and Senate earlier this month, would have prevented doctors from prescribing hormones, puberty blockers or gender reassignment surgery before patients turn 18. It also would have prohibited transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams in high school and college.

Watch video: Gov. Mike DeWine announces veto of House Bill 68

“Were I to sign House Bill 68, or were House Bill 68 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 the most: their parents,” DeWine said.

DeWine’s decision came after he visited children’s hospitals, spoke with families and reviewed testimony for and against the legislation. He said his administration will draft rules to ban surgery for patients under 18, collect data on transgender medical care and restrict pop-up clinics that don’t provide adequate mental health counseling.

The bill passed the House and Senate with a supermajority, meaning lawmakers could mobilize enough support to override DeWine’s veto.

Still, the veto delivered a victory to transgender Ohioans, advocates and medical providers who spoke out against the legislation and urged DeWine to reject it.

The governor opposed previous efforts to ban transgender girls and women from female sports, saying the issue shouldn’t be handled by government. That measure was initially separate from the medical care bill, but House lawmakers combined them into one proposal.

In a letter to DeWine, several health care organizations said doctors already get parental consent and don’t recommend gender transition surgery for minors.

“To advance this measure, supporters have demonized providers and parents alike and pushed misinformation in order to deny care to an incredibly small number of Ohio children,” they wrote. “Simply put, this bill takes away parental rights and will harm Ohio kids.”

Proponents argued the bill was necessary to protect children and pointed to stories of people who detransitioned − something LGBTQ advocates say is rare. A 2022 study from the American Academy of Pediatrics found 94% of youth maintained their gender identity five years after their social transition.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association allows transgender girls to join female teams if they’ve completed at least one year of hormone therapy. Seven transgender girls were approved to play girls’ sports at OHSAA schools for the 2023-24 school year.

“I hope if nothing else, the governor will look at this and look at the number of kids that are going to be harmed if this legislation goes into the effect,” Arienne Childrey, a transgender woman running for the Ohio House, said before DeWine’s veto. “The number of families that are going to have to decide whether they risk their children’s safety or put their house on the market and move to a different state.”

Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Gov. Mike DeWine vetoes House Bill 68 trans health care bill