The Franklin County Court of Common Pleas issued a temporary restraining order on Tuesday to prevent House Bill 68 from taking immediate effect.
House Bill 68, which includes the SAFE Act and the Save Women’s Sports Act, was set to take effect next week on April 24.
The SAFE Act prevents doctors from providing minors with gender-affirming care, while the Save Women’s Sports Act prevents biological males who identify as transgender from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
The court’s Tuesday order, in effect for two weeks, was granted at the request of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio, which filed a lawsuit last month on behalf of two families challenging House Bill 68, specifically regarding the bill’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
Freda Levenson, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio, said the organization is “thrilled and relieved” for the court’s order, adding, “Our legal battle will continue until, we hope, this cruel restriction is permanently blocked.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, the defendant in the lawsuit, responded to the court’s order on Tuesday, saying, “This is just the first page of the book. We will fight vigorously to defend this properly enacted statute, which protects our children from irrevocable adult decisions.”
“I am confident that this law will be upheld,” Yost added.
Ohio State Representative Gary Click (R-Vickery), the original sponsor of House Bill 68, also released a statement following the court’s ruling, saying, “We are disappointed but not surprised by this ruling.”
“The battle to protect children’s rights is a marathon, not a sprint…This is a temporary measure and the court has not made its final decision. We have our eyes on the finish line rather than the mile markers,” Click said. “It deserves to be reiterated that there is no constitutional right to sterilize or chemically castrate children. Neither the Ohio nor the United States Constitutions sanction amputating a minor’s healthy body parts in order to treat a mental health condition. It is unconscionable that health care providers would pursue reckless treatment plans which complicate a child’s mental health, increase the risk of suicide, and leave them with permanent physical injuries.”
“Attorney General Yost understands the intricacies of the judicial process and continues to earn my confidence. We will cross the finish line together and protect all of Ohio’s children to the fullest extent of the law,” Click added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
