Ohio's Senate has voted 24-8 to override Republican Gov. Mike DeWine's veto of a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors. The state House voted 65-28 earlier this month to override the veto of Bill 68, which also bars trans women and girls from playing on school sports teams, NBC News reports. Both chambers have Republican supermajorities and voted largely along party lines. When he vetoed the bill last month, DeWine said that the move was "about protecting human life" and that parents know what is best for their children. In an attempt at compromise with GOP lawmakers, he later signed an executive order banning gender-affirming surgeries for minors.
The bill makes Ohio the 22nd state to block minors from accessing treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy and the 24th with a law on trans athletes on sports teams, per NBC News. Under a grandfather clause, transgender youth already receiving treatment won't be blocked from receiving gender-affirming care, but there is no such protection for youths in neighboring states with similar laws who have been traveling to Ohio for treatment, the Washington Post reports. The law is expected to take effect in around 90 days.
Senators debated Bill 68 for around an hour before the vote, the Ohio Capital Journal reports. "Politicians have no business banning evidence-based, life-saving medical care — especially when it is endorsed by every major medical and mental health association," said Sen. Nickie J. Antonio, leader of the chamber's Democratic minority. The AP reports that Republican Sen. Kristina Roegner was booed by LGBTQ+ advocates when she said: "Gender is not fluid. There is no such thing as a gender spectrum." (More Ohio stories.)
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