Ohio Governor Mike DeWine vetoed a bill that would have protected women in sports and banned gender-affirming procedures from being performed on minors on Friday.
House Bill 68 includes two bills: the Saving Ohio Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act and the Save Women’s Sports Act.
The SAFE Act, if enacted, would prevent doctors from providing minors with gender-affirming care, which includes performing gender reassignment surgery and prescribing cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers.
The Save Women’s Sports Act, if enacted, would prevent biological males who identify as transgender from participating in girls’ and womens’ sports.
During a press conference, DeWine announced, “I cannot sign this bill as is currently written.”
DeWine, focusing on the SAFE Act portion of the bill, argued the “gut-wrenching decisions” regarding gender dysphoria when it pertains to minors should be made by parents.
“These are parents who have watched their child suffer – sometimes for years – and who have real concerns that their child may not survive to reach adulthood,” DeWine said.
When pressed on the Save Women’s Sports Act portion of the bill, DeWine said his decision was solely made based on his disagreements with the SAFE Act.
Former NCAA swimmer and conservative activist Riley Gaines, who testified in support of both the SAFE Act and the Save Women’s Sports Act, called DeWine a “spineless coward that needs to be removed from office” following his veto of the bill.
“Governor Mike DeWine is not a conservative by any stretch of the imagination. This veto doesn’t accurately represent Ohioans, nevertheless Americans,” Gaines added.
Activist and de-transitioner Chloe Cole also reacted to DeWine’s veto of the bill, writing on X, “Gov. DeWine’s political career is over. What a way to go out. Paid off by the medical lobby, which is insanely powerful in Ohio. Remember him for his desire to sterilize and mutilate children.”
GOP Ohio U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno also weighed in, saying, “Allowing young kids to get sex change surgeries and be subjected to experimental drugs like puberty blockers that can sterilize them for the rest of their lives is child abuse. I’m calling on the Ohio Legislature to immediately override this veto and protect Ohio’s children.”
Ohio U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) said he was “extremely disappointed” in DeWine’s decision to veto the bill, saying the governor’s argument that decisions regarding gender-affirming care being provided to minors should be made by parents is a “slogan, not a justification.”
“There are many things the law rightfully says no one, including parents, may do to children. This slogan also ignores the extraordinary pressure from interest groups and big pharma to green light poorly understood, irreversible procedures,” Vance added.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose also expressed disappointment in DeWine’s decision, writing on X, “I am disappointed that Governor DeWine vetoed HB68. This is very simple. We have a duty to protect safety and fair competition for female athletes and to protect children from being subjected to permanent, life-altering medical procedures before the age of 18. The state legislature should do the right thing and override this veto!”
The president of Ohio’s largest Christian public policy organization, Center for Christian Virtue (CCV), also condemned DeWine’s veto of House Bill 68.
“Mike DeWine has failed Ohio, and it’s our children who are going to pay the price. If the General Assembly does not override his veto, when we look back a generation from now at the thousands of kids who have been sterilized and harmed by dangerous and experimental transgender medical procedures, we will realize that those in power did nothing to stop it,” CCV president Aaron Baer said in a statement. “The only people celebrating this veto today are progressive activists who recklessly proclaim children can be ‘born in the wrong bodies’ and the children’s hospitals that are profiting off the sterilization and manipulation of children and parents.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
