by Background
Lawmakers approved the measure in early December. Those in favor of the bill argued that doctors pressure parents to approve transitional care treatments for their children. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Gary Click, said parents are “being manipulated by doctors.”
In addition to banning transitional care for minors, the bill says medical professionals who provide care could lose their licenses and be sued. It also prohibits transgender girls and women from playing on high school and college sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.
On Friday, DeWine said that if the bill were to become law, “Ohio would be saying that the state, the government, knows better what is medically best for a child than the two people who love that child the most, the parents.”
The governor made his decision after visiting hospitals and meeting with families “both positively and negatively affected” by gender-affirming care last week, a spokesperson said.
Why it matters: A historic year for restrictions on transgender people.
The Ohio bill came at the end of a year in which a record number of new laws were passed to regulate the lives of transgender youth.
Before this year, only three states had passed restrictions on gender transition health care for minors, according to a New York Times analysis. The count now stands at more than 20. Several dozen laws have been enacted this year, including some on how gender can be discussed in classrooms, which bathrooms transgender students can use and whether they can participate in school sports.
The testimony in Ohio echoed themes expressed in other state chambers. Supporters of bans on transitional care have argued that the treatments in minors are relatively new and the long-term effects are not well studied.
This summer, the American Academy of Pediatrics commissioned a systematic review of medical research on the treatments, although it still maintains the position that they may be essential. Transgender teens have high rates of depression, suicidal thoughts and self-harmand some evidence suggests that puberty blockers and hormones, Short term, could improve your mental health.
“The most heartbreaking part of my job is informing parents that their child has died, especially when their death was a preventable suicide,” Dr. Steve Davis, CEO of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, told Ohio senators at a hearing on the bill. “You trust us in any other condition. Please trust us on this one.”
What’s next: Lawmakers could override the veto.
For now, minors in Ohio can continue to receive gender transition treatments. But the Ohio legislature, where Republicans have a supermajority, could override DeWine’s veto. If so, only those who have already been receiving treatments will be able to continue with them.
About 100,000 transgender minors live in the 23 states that have laws restricting gender-affirming care, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. Federal judges have blocked the laws from being enforced in some states and allowed them to take effect in others. Many families, fearing the abrupt termination of a child’s treatment, have crossed state lines.
Last month, transgender youth and their families in Tennessee asked the Supreme Court to block the state’s ban on transitional care for minors. If the court agrees to hear the case, it would have implications for state bans across the country, legal experts said.
Anna Betts contributed reports.
