Ohio Legislature Set To Protect Children and Override Governor

COLUMBUS, OH – After Governor Mike DeWine vetoed the “Saving Ohio Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act,” a combined child safety bill that bans medical mutilation on minors and blocks biological males from participating in female interscholastic sports, the Ohio legislature has indicated it will override the veto in a special session January 10.

Ohio legislators overwhelmingly passed HB 68, known as the SAFE Act, with a veto-proof majority in December 2023 to protect children in the state from the gender ideology agenda. The SAFE Act specifically bans physicians from administering mutilating puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and gender surgeries on children under 18. The bill was combined with the “Save Women’s Sports Act” to protect female sports by barring biological male athletes from competing on female sports teams in schools and in public and private colleges. The SAFE Act would also codify parental rights in the state by allowing parents to raise their children “in a manner consistent with the child’s biological sex” without interference from the courts.

In a public statement, Gov. DeWine said he vetoed the bill after meeting with families and visiting children’s hospitals and coming to the conclusion that the SAFE Act, if enacted into law, would be akin to the state saying it “knows better” than parents what is “medically” best for a child. Despite the bill containing provisions strengthening parental rights in these decisions, Gov. DeWine stated they should be made by parents who are informed “by teams of doctors” advising them.

Then on January 5, 2024, Gov. DeWine signed an executive order enacting emergency rules that banned mutilating gender surgeries for minors in any surgical facility in the state. In the order, Gov. DeWine clearly agreed with the Ohio legislature about gender surgeries and blocked them from being performed on a minor, but he fell short of prohibiting puberty blockers and hormone treatments.

In a press conference on January 5, Gov. DeWine reiterated the importance of “parents” and that there was “very little” evidence of these mutilating surgeries on minors occurring in Ohio. He stated that not all gender-related procedures lead to surgery and there was “broad consensus” that minors should not have gender surgeries, and that this executive order was “a good way to take this issue off the table” and “talk about other things.”

However, there is evidence that some Ohio hospitals are performing mutilating surgeries on children. For example, Ohio State Representative Gary Click posted a video on social media about a Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center official talking about connecting gender-confused minors with a breast surgeon. In addition, Ohio reporter Colleen Marshall reported that a Cleveland-based surgeon will perform mastectomies on minors as young as 16.

While Gov. DeWine did not disclose what hospitals he visited prior to his decision to veto the SAFE Act, a public report shows that he apparently received campaign donations from several Ohio hospitals. The report shows from 2018 to 2023 that Gov. DeWine received $40,300 from the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, Cincinnati Children’s, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and ProMedica Health Care System, all of which follow the “World Professional Association of Transgender Health” (WPATH) guidelines. In September 2022, the WPATH removed all age guidelines for when to start puberty blockers or mutilating surgeries.

Regarding women’s sports, the second major topic of the bill, Gov. DeWine only minimally addressed it in his January 5 press conference. He stated that while the women’s sports part of the bill was “important,” he noted that only a small number of children in the state are affected by the issue and that he only focused on the medical mutilation issue “and did not get into [the sports issue].”

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Once the Ohio legislature overrides the veto, the state’s SAFE Act will take effect after 90 days in April 2024. At least 23 other states have enacted laws protecting women’s sports and at least 22 other states have enacted laws protecting minors from mutilating surgeries. Ohio belongs to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has already upheldlaws in Kentucky and Tennessee protecting children from medical mutilation.

In 2022, the “gender surgery industry” in the United States was estimated to be $2.1 billion and is expected to grow to $5 billion by 2030.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Children deserve all the protections against the harmful gender ideology agenda. These medical interventions are harmful, scientifically unsupported, and in many cases irreversible. Gov. DeWine’s dismissal of the women’s sports issue is insulting and endangers the safety of women and girls. Every state needs to stand against gender ideology and pass laws protecting our children.”

For more information about state laws protecting against gender ideology, visit Liberty Counsel’s website here.

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