Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) vetoed legislation Friday that would have banned gender procedures for minors and prevented boys who identify as girls from competing in girls’ sports.
Ohio House Bill 68, which was passed by the Republican-controlled Ohio General Assembly, was made up of two acts: the “Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act” and the “Save Women’s Sports Act.” The bill would ban transgender procedures on minors, such as double mastectomies on girls who identify as boys, and other genital procedures for children with gender dysphoria. It would also also prohibit biological boys from competing in girls’ sports across the state.
HB 68 passed mostly along party lines on December 13, with the Ohio House voting 62-27 and the Ohio Senate voting 24-8 to approve the legislation, but after issuing his veto on Friday, DeWine said he was concerned about the legal implications of signing HB 68 into law.
“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,” DeWine said at a press conference, ABC News reported.
Senate President Matt Huffman said earlier this month that the legislation was necessary to protect children from harmful treatments.
“Certainly the parents are the most important decision-maker in a child’s life. But there are things where it’s important for the state to step in and protect the child,” Huffman said.
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The bill would also create protections for parents who do not want their child to undergo a so-called “transition” or allow them to undergo transgender procedures. The measure was primarily sponsored by Republican Rep. Gary Click.
DeWine became just the second Republican governor to veto bans on transgender procedures for minors after former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson vetoed a similar ban in 2021, according to NBC News. Two other GOP governors — Spencer Cox of Utah and Eric Holcomb of Indiana — vetoed bans on boys competing in girls’ sports last year.
Hutchinson’s, Cox’s, and Holcomb’s vetoes were all overridden by Republican supermajorities, and DeWine’s veto now faces the same fate against the Republican supermajority hold on the Ohio legislature, where lawmakers will have to come up with a three-fifths majority to override the governor’s veto.
Twenty-two states have either restricted or banned transgender procedures on minors over the past three years as more studies come out showing the negative health implications of gender “treatments” and more detransitioners tell their stories of regret.
The Associated Press reported last week that DeWine had visited hospitals and talked with families who had been “helped and harmed” by transgender procedures.
“We’re dealing with children who are going through a challenging time, families that are going through a challenging time,” he said. “I want, the best I can, to get it right.”
Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.