The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio announced Monday it will file a lawsuit challenging the Saving Ohio Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, which is included in House Bill 68.
BREAKING: We're suing Ohio over their ban on health care for transgender youth.
This is an unconstitutional effort to control our families, our bodies, and our lives. Ohio, we’ll see you in court.
— ACLU (@ACLU) January 29, 2024
The SAFE Act prevents doctors from providing minors with gender-affirming care, which includes performing gender reassignment surgery and prescribing cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers.
The ACLU’s announcement of its pending lawsuit comes days after the Ohio Senate voted to override Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of the bill, as previously reported by The Ohio Star.
House Bill 68, which includes the SAFE Act and the Save Women’s Sports Act, is set to take effect on April 23, 2024.
The ACLU says it will file its lawsuit to halt the law before it takes effect.
“We are preparing litigation to defend transgender youth and their constitutional right to receive medically necessary healthcare,” Freda Levenson, Legal Director at the ACLU of Ohio said in a statement. “The use of gender-affirming hormone therapy to treat transgender minors is supported by every major medical association in our country. Transgender youth, together with their doctors and parents, should have access to evidence-based medical care just like anyone else. Families should be able to make these private, personal decisions based on the advice of their physicians, and free from interference by politicians. HB 68 is not only cruel; it violates the Ohio Constitution and must be challenged.”
The ACLU argues that hormone therapy to treat gender dysphoria in youth is “evidence-based, medically necessary, and backed by major medical associations across the nation,” adding, “To deny this care lacks any basis in medical science and would have disastrous consequences for the health and well-being of Ohio youth with gender dysphoria.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has previously said he is “prepared” to defend House Bill 68 “against the inevitable legal challenge.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
