The Ohio House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to override Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of legislation that would have outlawed gender-changing services for minors and barred transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports.
DeWine vetoed the comprehensive bill – House Bill 68 –last month after it passed the state legislature by wide margins, opting instead to issue an executive order that simply bans gender-reassignment surgery on minors.
HB 68 sought to go further, by prohibiting doctors from prescribing hormones and puberty blockers for minors, as well as banning them from performing gender reassignment surgeries on people under 18.
The legislation would also prohibit transgender females from playing on high school and college sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
“Today marks yet another victory for women and children in Ohio,” HB 68’s sponsor, state Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery), said in a statement. “It is hard to fathom that we live in a society that would tell children that they need drugs and scalpels to live their authentic lives.”
Ohio House lawmakers ended their winter recess early in order to vote on the override, which passed in a 65-28 vote.
HB 68 now needs 20 Ohio state senators to vote in favor of overriding DeWine’s veto in order for the law to effect. The Senate, which previously passed the legislation with 24 votes, returns to session on Jan. 24.
“I continue to believe it is in the best interests of children for these medical decisions to be made by the child’s parents and not by the government,” DeWine said in a statement released after the House override.
DeWine, 76, warned that “the consequences of this bill could not be more profound” on Dec. 29, when he vetoed the measure.
“Ultimately, I believe this is about protecting human life,” he added. “Many parents have told me that their child would not have survived, would be dead today if they had not received the treatment they received from one of Ohio’s children’s hospitals. I’ve also been told by those who are now grown adults that but for this care, they would have taken their life when they were teenagers.”
