Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed an executive order on Friday banning gender transition surgeries for minors at any hospital or ambulatory surgical facility in Ohio.
“The Ohio Department of Health has drafted rules that would prohibit gender transition surgeries on anyone under the age of 18 in Ohio’s hospitals and health care facilities, including ambulatory surgical facilities,” Executive Order-01D states.
DeWine’s executive order comes exactly one week after he vetoed House Bill 68.
House Bill 68, a combination of the Saving Ohio Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act and the Save Women’s Sports Act, would prevent doctors from providing minors with “gender-affirming” care as well as prevent biological males who identify as transgender from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
While DeWine’s executive order bans surgeries for minors, it does not ban other gender-affirming care for minors, including prescribed cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose called DeWine’s executive order a “day late and a dollar short,” adding, “It doesn’t protect fairness in women’s sports, and the next governor could unilaterally repeal it.”
“Override the veto of HB 68,” LaRose added.
Conservative commentator and activist Matt Walsh, who broke the story on how Vanderbilt University Medical Center was caught providing transgender surgeries to minors in 2022, also commented on DeWine’s executive order, calling it “not nearly good enough.”
“DeWine is trying to find an incoherent compromise position by banning surgeries but still allowing chemical castration of children. Not nearly good enough. His veto must be overridden and he should still be run out of Republican politics forever,” Walsh wrote on X.
Former NCAA swimmer and conservative activist Riley Gaines, who testified in support of both the SAFE Act and the Save Women’s Sports Act, added in a X post, “Impressive [DeWine’s] managed to alienate himself from both republicans and democrats. Override the veto & get DeWine out of office.”
Ohio State Representative Gary Click (R-Vickery), the original sponsor of House Bill 68, said while he is “cautiously optimistic” about DeWine’s executive order, he cannot accept it as a “substitute for the SAFE Act.”
Adding how DeWine’s “temporary administrative orders are no substitute for solid legislation,” Click announced the GOP caucus “fully intends” to override the governor’s veto of the bill, which passed by “veto-proof majorities in each chamber.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
