Ohio Senate Overrides Governor’s Veto of Bill Banning Trans Medical Procedures for Minors, Restricting Sports Participation

The Ohio senate on Wednesday successfully overrode Governor Mike DeWine’s veto on a bill that bans transgender medical procedures for minors and restricts trans student-athlete participation in female sports.

The Republican state senate voted 23-9, two weeks after the state house voted 65-28 along party lines to override the governor’s veto. Ohio House Bill 68 will become law in 90 days.

The Ohio legislature’s votes come after DeWine, a Republican, vetoed the bill late last month to kill both acts within the transgender-focused legislation. The bill in question includes the “Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act” and “Save Women’s Sports Act,” each of which is dedicated to combatting the transgender ideology’s widespread application in Ohio.

The latter act, while it has been accused of specifically discriminating against trans student-athletes in women’s sports, applies the same restrictions to both trans and non-trans students equally. “No school, interscholastic conference, or organization that regulates interscholastic athletics shall knowingly permit individuals of the male sex to participate on athletic teams or in athletic competitions designated only for participants of the female sex,” it reads.

At a press conference immediately following his veto on December 29, DeWine said neither the government nor the state of Ohio, as the bill stood, should weigh in on the decision about whether a minor should have access to transgender surgeries or hormone therapy. Rather, he said, the decision should be made by the child’s parents and doctors.

At the time, DeWine announced he would draft his own rules for opposing such medical procedures for minors moving forward: “I truly believe that we can address a number of goals in House Bill 68 by administrative rules that will have likely a better chance of surviving judicial review and being adopted.”

A week after making the decision, DeWine followed through on his promise by issuing an “emergency” executive order that bars physicians from performing gender-transition surgeries, such as mastectomies and hysterectomies, on children in Ohio’s hospitals and health-care facilities.

“A week has gone by, and I still feel just as firmly as I did that day,” DeWine said at a press conference on January 5, while defending his decision to veto the broader yet similar ban. “I believe the parents, not the government, should be making these crucial decisions for their children.”