Republican Ohio governor Mike DeWine issued an “emergency” executive order Friday banning child gender-transition surgeries. The emergency order, however, is a less broad mandate after receiving intense backlash for vetoing a bill last week.
The original bill, dubbed the SAFE Act, prohibited physicians from prescribing cross-sex hormones or puberty-blocking medicine to kids. It also banned men in women’s sports, offering a legal recourse to students forced to play against the opposite sex.
The new executive order would bar physicians from performing gender-transition surgeries, such as mastectomies and hysterectomies, on kids in Ohio’s hospitals and health-care facilities.
“A week has gone by, and I still feel just as firmly as I did that day,” DeWine said at a press conference Friday, defending his decision to veto the broader ban. “I believe the parents, not the government, should be making these crucial decisions for their children.”
Former president Trump wrote on TRUTH Social that DeWine had “fallen to the Radical Left.” “What was he thinking,” Trump said. “The bill would have stopped child mutilation, and prevented men from playing in women’s sports. Legislature will hopefully overturn. Do it FAST!!”
National Review reports DeWine’s initial justification was that the decision to give a child life-altering, potentially sterilizing drugs and procedures should be left up to the child’s parents and doctors. DeWine said at a press conference that follow-up rules would be coming regarding the surgeries for minors, saying, “I truly believe that we can address a number of goals in House Bill 68 by administrative rules that will have likely a better chance of surviving judicial review and being adopted.”
