The Republican-controlled Ohio Senate on Wednesday voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine's veto of a bill that would ban gender reassignment services for minors and ban transgender athletes from participating in women's sports. It was approved.
The override passed on a 23-9 vote after the Ohio House of Representatives voted earlier this month to override the Republican governor's veto.
Ohio House Bill 68 prohibits doctors from prescribing hormones or puberty suppressants to minors and from performing gender reassignment surgery on people under 18.
The law also prohibits transgender women from playing on high school or college sports teams according to their gender identity.
Last December, DeWine vetoed the omnibus bill after it passed the state House by a wide margin, opting instead to issue an executive order that would simply ban gender reassignment surgery on minors. did.
“I think parents should make those decisions, not the government,” DeWine, 76, said before Wednesday's vote, according to the newspaper. ohio capital journal.
He previously warned when he vetoed the bill that “the consequences of this bill could not be more severe.”
“Ultimately, I believe this is about saving lives,” DeWine said. “Many parents have told me that if they hadn't received the treatment they received at Children's Hospital of Ohio, their child would not have survived and would have died today. Adults have told me that without this care, they would have taken their own lives as teenagers.”
Republican state Sen. Christina Rogner, one of the bill's co-sponsors, said “gender-affirming medicine” has become a “profit center” for hospitals seeking to turn minors into “permanent patients.” insisted.
“Men and women, boys and girls are all different,” Rogner said on the Senate floor. “Gender is not fluid. There is no such thing as a gender spectrum.”
“This is a significant source of revenue for hospitals that promote these procedures for teens and children,” she added. “They don't have the ability to make life-changing decisions.”
Democratic state Sen. Bill DeMola argued that transgender youth's lives would be “destroyed” as a result of the Senate's veto override.
“Instead of passing one of dozens of serious bipartisan bills that would actually help Ohioans, the Senate decided to nullify HB 68 and target transgender youth.” he said. Tweet. “Lives were destroyed today. The Senate was given a rare opportunity to reflect after passing a bad bill, but it was wasted.”
HB 68's grandfather clause would allow doctors already treating transgender patients to continue doing so.
The law is scheduled to go into effect in the spring.
