The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the state of Ohio to ban gender reassignment surgery and hormone blockers for minors, scheduled to go into effect next month.
The lawsuit was brought by the ACLU and global law firm Goodwin against Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and the state medical board on behalf of two 12-year-old transgender girls and their families. They are asking the court to block the law. It will come into effect on April 24th.
Yost, a Republican, said in a statement to Fox News Digital that his office stands ready to uphold the law.
“We protect children with a variety of restrictions that don’t apply to adults, from signing legal contracts to purchasing alcohol and tobacco,” Yost said. “As promised during the veto override, my office will defend this constitutional provision.”
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The state medical board told Fox News Digital it does not comment on pending litigation.
This photo shows the American Civil Liberties Union logo. (Karen Bleier/AFP via Getty Images)
The legislation, passed as House Bill 68, would also ban biological males who identify as transgender women from participating in women’s sports. Ohio Republicans overrode Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of the bill in January.
ACLU legal director Frieda Levenson said in a statement that banning “gender-affirming” procedures and treatments “causes significant harm to transgender youth.”
“These personal, private medical decisions should be made between families and doctors, not politicians,” Levenson said.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, says the bill combines two bills, the first part banning transgender women from participating in women’s sports and the second part banning transgender women from participating in women’s sports. It argues that it is “unconstitutional” because it violates the state constitution’s single-subject rule. Prohibits doctors from performing sex reassignment surgery or providing puberty blockers to minors.
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Protesters of Kentucky Senate Bill SB150, known as the Transgender Health Care Act, cheer on a speaker during a rally on the lawn of the Kentucky State Capitol on March 29, 2023 in Frankfort, Kentucky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
The ACLU further argues that blocking these “medically necessary” procedures causes suffering for children with gender dysphoria and violates their rights under the state’s Equal Protection Clause.
“Treatment with gender-affirming hormone therapy not only improves symptoms of gender dysphoria, depression, and anxiety in transgender youth, but also improves psychological functioning in transgender youth receiving treatment for gender dysphoria. “It has been proven that
“Without intervention, the devastating physical changes of adolescence will continue,” the study continued. “Failure to intervene when gender-affirming medical care is needed can result in significant harm to patients in the form of increased gender dysphoria due to the development of secondary sex characteristics that are inconsistent with the person’s gender identity.” .”
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A list of supplies that are said to be “helpful during adolescence,” including puberty blockers. (Fox News Digital)
In December, DeWine vetoed the bill, saying it was about “protecting human life.” Before his veto, DeWine spoke with medical experts (all of whom support blocking puberty in minors) and families with transgender children.
“I’ve had people who are now adults tell me that without this care, they would have taken their own lives as teenagers,” DeWine said at the time. “Parents are making decisions about the most important thing in their lives – their children. None of us should underestimate the gravity and difficulty of those decisions.”
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more conservative nation Began to tighten laws restricting both surgical drugs and hormone blockers to minors. States such as Idaho, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Florida have made it a felony to perform sex reassignment surgery or hormone-altering treatments on minors, criminalizing these procedures. We have taken a step toward becoming
Meanwhile, some more liberal states have enacted “shield laws” protecting these procedures and sex-change drugs for transgender people and children. These states include California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, New York, Vermont, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maryland, Illinois, and Massachusetts.
