The Ohio legislature is a step closer to overriding Gov. Mike DeWine’s (R-OH) veto of a bill to ban gender transition medicine for minors and prevent biological male athletes from playing on women’s sports teams regardless of gender identification.
House Republicans overrode the governor’s veto by a margin of 65-25 on Wednesday.
DeWine received significant backlash from conservative politicians and advocacy groups late last month after vetoing H.B. 68, which passed the House on Dec. 13 with over 70% support.
Republican state Rep. Gary Click, author of the original bill, said on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday that calls from constituents to override DeWine’s veto “represent the highest organic input that we have ever received.”
“No parent has the constitutional right to harm their child,” Click said during his floor speech in support of the override vote. “The same government that requires you to send your children to school prohibits you from giving them illicit drugs and can charge parents for neglect and abuse also has the obligation to prevent parents and physicians from chemically castrating and sterilizing their children.”
Click is a strong supporter of “detransitioners,” or those who undergo medical treatment for gender transition and later revert to identifying with their biological sex.
In Click’s floor testimony in support of the override, he told the stories of several biologically female detransitioners, describing their complications with invasive procedures.
H.B. 68 bars physicians from prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors as a treatment for gender dysphoria. The bill also prevents medical professionals from performing invasive surgeries on minors for gender transition, including mastectomies, vaginoplasties, or phalloplasties.
On Friday, DeWine issued an executive order banning invasive surgeries for minors suffering from gender dysphoria, saying his primary reason for vetoing the original bill was because of its prevention of hormonal treatment options.
“DeWine’s executive order was nothing more than an attempt to distract from his cowardly veto of this crucial legislation,” Logan Church, political director of Catholic Vote, told the Washington Examiner. “Our children are too precious to be used as political pawns.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is also running for Ohio’s open Senate seat in 2024, is supportive of the veto override and has said that he was “disappointed” in the governor’s veto.
Many conservatives disagreed with the veto on the grounds that did nothing to address the issue of biological males playing on women’s sports teams, which DeWine said was not a factor in his decision to veto H.B. 68.
Four other states have overridden governor vetoes of similar pieces of legislation, including Arkansas in 2021 and Kentucky, Louisiana, and North Carolina in 2023.
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“DeWine has turned his back on the values of Ohio families,” Church said. “We hope the Senate promptly follows in the House’s footsteps to preserve the principles Ohioans hold dear.”
The Ohio Senate will also need to vote in order to overturn the governor’s veto. Committee hearings for the Ohio Senate begin on Thursday, Jan. 11, with the next full session scheduled for Jan. 24.
