Ohio Governor Mike DeWine today vetoed HB 68 which prohibited physicians from performing gender reassignment surgery or prescribing cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers to minors, and prohibited transgender women from participating on women's athletic teams in schools that participate in interscholastic athletics and in public and private colleges. (Full text of Governor's Veto Message, his prepared Statement at a News Conference, and a video of his lengthy News Conference on the veto.) Focusing only on the ban on treatment of minors, the Governor said in part:
Were I to sign Substitute House Bill 68 or were Substitute House Bill 68 to become law, Ohio would be saying that the State, that the government, knows what is best medically for a child rather than the two people who love that child the most, the parents...
I have listened to the concerns the Legislature ... and agree that action is necessary regarding a number of issues raised.
I believe we can address a number of goals in Substitute House Bill 68 by administrative rules that will have a better chance of surviving judicial review and being adopted....
I adamantly agree with the General Assembly that no surgery of this kind should ever be performed on those under the age of 18. I am directing our agencies to draft rules to ban this practice in Ohio.
I share with the legislature their concerns that there is no comprehensive data regarding persons who receive this care, nor independent analysis of any such data. 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. We will do this not only when patients are minors, but also when the patients are adults.
I also share with the legislature’s concerns about clinics that may pop up and try to sell patients inadequate or even ideological treatments. This is a concern shared by people I spoke with who had both positive experiences and negative experiences with their own treatments....
Therefore, I am directing our agencies to draft rules that establish restrictions that prevent pop-up clinics or fly-by-night operations and provide important protections for Ohio children and their families and for adults.
