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UPDATE (Jan. 6, 2024, 11:35 a.m. ET): Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed an executive order on Friday banning gender-affirming surgery for minors, and he also proposed new administrative rules that would require minors and adults seeking transition-related care to have a multidisciplinary medical team with an endocrinologist, a bioethicist and a psychiatrist.
Splitting from other GOP governors on the issue and spurning his fellow Republicans in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed a bill on Friday that would ban gender-affirming care for trans minors and prevent trans girls from participating in girls sports.
At a press conference, he spoke about his reasons for vetoing the legislation, saying its consequences for children with gender dysphoria and their families “could not be more profound.”
“Many parents have told me that their child would not have survived, would be dead today, if they had not received the treatment they received from one of Ohio’s children’s hospitals. I’ve also been told by those who are now grown adults that but for this care, they would have taken their life when they were teenagers,” he said.
“These are gut-wrenching decisions that should be made by parents, and should be informed by teams of doctors who are advising them,” DeWine added.
The governor’s veto puts him at odds with other Republicans in his state, including his own second-in-command, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who had expressed his support for the bill on Thursday.
“Men should not compete in women’s sports,” Husted posted on X. “Permanent medical decisions concerning gender should not be made when you are a child.”
The bill had passed the Ohio House along party lines, and only one Republican state senator, Nathan Manning, joined Democrats in opposing it in the Ohio Senate. H.B. 68 could still become law should 60% of the Ohio Legislature vote to override DeWine’s veto.
Anti-trans legislative attacks have exploded in number this year, with conservative lawmakers across dozens of states targeting trans athletes, gender-affirming care, gender identity markers, and which bathrooms people can use. Such laws have significantly negative effects on transgender people’s mental health, and they hamstring health care providers’ ability to care for their patients. Anti-trans legislation has also forced families to flee those states so they can seek care for their trans children.