COLUMBUS, Ohio (CN) — Republican Governor Mike DeWine partially broke ranks with his state's conservative lawmakers on Friday when he vetoed a proposed law that would have banned gender-affirming care for Ohio's transgender youth.
The same law, known as House Bill 68, would have also banned transgender student-athletes from joining girls' sports teams.
DeWine's veto aligns with the views of Ohio progressives and transgender rights advocates, though in a statement he issued Friday, he couched the move in the conservative-friendly language of small government and parents' rights.
"Were I to sign House Bill 68 or were House Bill 68 to become law, Ohio would be saying that the state — that the government— knows better what is medically best for a child than the two people who love that child the most — the parents." DeWine said. "While there are rare times in the law — in other circumstances — where the state overrules the medical decisions made by the parents, I can think of no example where this is done, not only against the decision of the parents, but also against the medical judgement of the treating physician and the treating team of medical experts."
DeWine said in the same statement that he had listened to medical experts, adult transgender individuals who had received gender-affirming care as youths, and the parents of transgender children before arriving at his decision. Progressive organizations like the Ohio ACLU had also leaned on DeWine to toss the bill, with the ACLU specifically ramping up a pressure campaign on the governor after state lawmakers passed the bill on Dec. 13.
DeWine's Friday statement echoed the ACLU's own words on the bill.
"Important medical decisions should remain between youths, their families, and medical providers — not our politicians," the Ohio ACLU said in a call for a letter-writing campaign from earlier this month.
Despite this, DeWine indicated he still sided with state Republicans in their opposition to surgical care for transgender youth, and that he would work to ban such surgeries in Ohio.
He further stated his support for unspecified Ohio agencies to gather more "comprehensive data regarding persons who receive this care," as well as his opposition to "pop-up" clinics that would offer youth "inadequate or even ideological treatments." The statement did not specify whether "this care" referred to gender-affirming care in general, or surgical care specifically. It likewise wasn't clear what DeWine meant by "ideological treatments" in this context.
"I am today directing our agencies to immediately draft rules to require reporting to the relevant agencies and to report this data to the General Assembly and the public every six months," De Wine said. "We will do this not only when the patients are minors, but also when the patients are adults."
DeWine is now the second Republican governor to veto a bill forbidding gender-affirming care forwarded by his own party, following former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson's rejection of a similar law in April 2021. The Republican-controlled Arkansas Legislature overruled Hutchinson's veto two days later.
The Republican governors of Indiana and Utah also vetoed bills barring transgender athletes from women's sports in March 2022. As with Hutchinson, state lawmakers overruled these vetoes soon afterwards.
A statement issued by House Bill 68's main sponsor, Republican state Representative Gary Click, did not specify if the GOP-controlled Ohio legislature would similarly look to override DeWine.
"Despite our initial differences on some of these issues, I am happy that the governor wants to work together to find a common solution. I am hopeful that increased communication can bring the best solution to our great state," Click said, while also lamenting the afront to girls' sports he says transgender athletes represent.
"Our young women should not need to wait another day for equality, dignity and privacy in the athletic arena. They have been put on hold for far too long. It is difficult to watch Ohio’s women experience yet one more delay in the rights they deserve," Click said.
According to a 2022 study by the University of California's Williams Institute, a public policy research institute focusing on LGBTQ+ issues, only about 1.15% of all Ohio youth aged 13-17 — about 8,500 kids in all — identify as transgender. The figure is even lower among adults; only 0.51% of Ohioans over the age of 18, or about 46,500 people, identify as transgender.
In total, according to the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Ohio, the Ohio High School Athletic Association has approved fewer than 20 transgender girls to play on high school girls' sports teams since 2015.
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