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By Karen Kasler & Sarah Donaldson, The StateHouse News Bureau, 8/6/24
A Franklin County judge has upheld Ohio's ban on gender transition treatment (child mutilation) for minors. The decision means House Bill 68, which also includes a ban on trans athletes in girls' and women's sports, is now in effect. The bill is titled the "Saving Ohio Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act."
The decision comes from a lawsuit filed in March in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, which sought to block HB 68 from going into effect on schedule, and at all. It was filed on behalf of two 12-year-old transgender girls and their families, one from Hamilton County and one from Franklin County. Their families and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio argued they would lose “critical, medically necessary health care” under HB 68.
Judge Michael Holbrook, who stopped the law from taking effect until after his decision, wrote that HB 68 doesn't violate Ohio's single subject rule for legislation, and that it doesn't violate the state's "health care freedom" constitutional amendment. He also wrote that it doesn't violate either the Equal Protection Clause or the Due Course of Law Clause.
In defending the law, the state in part argued that transition treatment is too risky for anyone under 18 to undergo, and HB 68 protects them from potential harm. Republican Attorney General Dave Yost also said Holbrook went too far in halting the law before it took effect.
A spokesperson for Yost said in a statement: "The Attorney General applauds the trial court’s decision. This case has always been about the legislature’s authority to enact a law to protect our children from making irreversible medical and surgical decisions about their bodies. The law doesn’t say 'no' forever; it simply says 'not now’ while the child is still growing."
ACLU of Ohio legal director Freda Levenson said in a statement: "While this decision by the court is a genuine setback, it is not the end of the road in our fight to secure the constitutional rights of transgender youth, as well as all Ohioans’ right to bodily autonomy. We are appealing immediately.”
Levenson confirms the law is now in effect, and that the appeal is being filed with the Tenth District Court of Appeals. The next step would be the Ohio Supreme Court.
Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed HB 68 late last year, but almost all GOP lawmakers voted during sessions of the Ohio House and Senate to override that veto in January.
The case against HB 68 was litigated for five days in a Franklin County courtroom. It included testimony from parents of the two plaintiffs and an out-of-state parent on the other side of the issue, physicians and activists.
Major American medical associations back puberty blockers and other treatments for trans youth, the ACLU has said, which is why it wants physicians to continue prescribing care for patients under the current status quo. (Editor's Note: Most Western Nations outside of the US have either banned or drastically restricted gender changing surgeries and chemical treatments for minor children.)
Holbrook's ruling is likely to face an appeals process that could make it all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court.
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