The Ohio House of Representatives on Wednesday, in a 65-28 vote, overrode Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of House Bill 68—a measure that would ban the administration of sex-change surgeries, cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to children under the age of 18. It would also prohibit biological males from competing in women’s and girls’ sports.
Sponsored by Rep. Gary Click, House Bill 68 is comprised of the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act and the Save Women’s Sports Act. Additionally, it would protect parents’ rights to raise and refer to their children in a manner consistent with their biological sex, even when that differs from a child’s wishes, without interference from any court. This would prevent what has happened to several parents in Ohio and elsewhere who have had to battle for custody of their children due to disagreements over gender identity.
Division within the Ohio House was evident prior to the vote. Proponents of DeWine’s veto sported rainbow or pink-and-blue pins supporting LGBTQ ideology and repeatedly spoke of trusting “science” and letting children be who they feel they are on the inside, regardless of their biology. One representative said, “With this vote to override the governor’s veto today, you are literally killing our children.”
Proponents of House Bill 68 cited the medical risks associated with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children, including future infertility. “You are literally trying to sterilize children in the name of an agenda,” Rep. Josh Williams stated. “This legislation will help protect children, and sometimes we must protect them even from themselves.”
Rep. Jena Powell, who has been working to get the Save Women’s Sports Act passed since she was elected in 2019, cited cases of biological males overpowering, stealing titles from, and injuring women and girls as they compete in what are supposed to be all-female sports leagues. “Allowing a biological male to compete against biological females is discriminatory, and it turns back the clock over a half-century on advances we have made for women.”
Click said he believed that the governor and most of the representatives had good intentions—“However, good intentions do not save lives or protect women. Good policy does. … The same government that requires you to send your children to school, prohibits you from giving them illicit drugs and can charge parents with neglect and abuse, also has the obligation to prevent parents and physicians from chemically castrating and sterilizing their children.”
The Ohio governor vetoed the bill on Dec. 29. He then issued an executive order banning sex-change surgeries on minors, and proposed draft rules for the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services that would require a “multi-disciplinary team” to support an individual seeking gender transition care. The rule he mainly emphasized was the requirement of a “comprehensive care plan,” which would require “comprehensive and lengthy mental health counseling prior to being considered for any other treatment” for a gender transition—and this would apply to children and adults.
“I believe that parents, not the government, should be making these very crucial medical decisions for the children,” DeWine said. According to the Associated Press, the governor cleared his calendar the week preceding his veto to visit three children’s hospitals and speak with families who have either been helped or hurt by sex-change medical treatment. He explained to the press following the veto that he made the decision based on what he heard from these families.
However, one of the hospitals DeWine visited, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, evidently coaches its doctors on how to strategically move children toward “gender-affirming care” under the parents’ radar. The hospital allegedly refers children to therapy or counseling without disclosing to the parent that it is because of gender identity issues, even prescribing drugs that suppress young girls’ menstrual cycles. The same hospital lobbied DeWine to veto House Bill 68, according to The Daily Wire.
Click lamented that DeWine did not seem to listen to the witnesses who described to him their horrific experiences with childhood sex-change surgeries and drugs, and their profound regret after receiving “gender-affirming care” as a child. Click affirmed DeWine’s executive order as protection from people rushing to gender clinics in the days before the bill would take effect; however, he suggested DeWine’s proposed draft rules be used as supplements to, not in place of, House Bill 68.
The Ohio Senate is expected to consider the override on Jan. 24. If the bill passes there, it will go into effect 90 days later.
“Consultation with an ideologically captured physician does not grant parents the right to harm children through irreversible surgeries and harmful drugs,” Click said.
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