COLUMBUS—Ohio’s law banning experimental puberty-blocking medications and gender surgeries on children, HB68, made national news this year when Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed the bill, and the Ohio Senate overrode his veto.
A Franklin County judge issued a temporary injunction against the law taking effect this spring, while the ACLU filed a suit. The law catches Ohio up to dozens of other states and several European countries banning or limiting the experimental procedures on children. The trial is set for next week, starting July 15.
Context
Ohio’s “SAFE Act” prohibits youth from being prescribed experimental “puberty-blocking” drugs which experts say are unsafe, leading to infertility and loss of bone density. The law also bans gender surgeries on youth, such as mastectomies and vaginoplasty.
The law catches Ohio up with 22 other states to have banned the experimental procedures, as well as several European countries. The White House said last week it opposed gender transition surgeries for minors.
The UK shuttered its Tavistock gender clinic, the largest in the world, in 2022, citing lack of evidence of the safety and necessity of the procedures. Sweden and Norway moved to limit the practice in the wake of concern from physicians.
The National Academy of Medicine in France cautioned against the procedures, saying, “hormonal and surgical treatments carry health risks and have permanent effects, and that it is not possible to distinguish a durable trans identity from a passing phase of an adolescent's development.”
The American College of Pediatricians has condemned the measures, saying the drugs and procedures are unsafe.
HB68’s Path
The SAFE Act passed in Ohio’s House of Representatives and Senate before being sent to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk in February. The bill would also prohibit biological males from competing against girls and using girls’ locker rooms in youth sports.
DeWine vetoed the bill, but the Ohio Senate majority overrode his veto, before a Franklin County judge issued an injunction against the law taking effect.
DeWine Campaign Funding and Veto
DeWine’s veto drew scrutiny in light of five-figure campaign contributions he received directly from both Les and Abigail Wexner. Wexner is a close associate of the late Jeffrey Epstein. Wexner also gave $250,000 to a pro-DeWine group in 2022.
The former L Brands CEO and his wife are major donors at Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. A research institute at Nationwide bears Abigail Wexner’s name. She has served on the board of the hospital since 1993 and as its chair from 2005 to 2012.
Gender transition surgeries and medications are lucrative for hospitals. Vanderbilt University Medical Center became the center of a firestorm last year when leaked video described the dangerous procedures as a “huge money maker.”
Video showed a physician explaining how to circumvent insurance companies’ billing codes to collect on the procedures, sparking a fraud investigation from Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti.
In the fallout, Vanderbilt then paused the procedures on youth.
HB68’s future in court
Freda Levenson of ACLU Ohio filed a suit on behalf of anonymous complainants, challenging HB68. The suit is set to go to trial July 15.
