DeWine Vetoes Gender Affirming Ban Bill in Ohio

[Norbert]

Ohio's Republican Gov. Mike DeWine announced Friday that he has as vetoed a bill that would have banned medical practitioners from providing gender-affirming care for transgender minors, saying he believes gender-affirming care is a decision families should make, not the government.

The Republican governor said he arrived at his decision to veto House Bill 68, also called the SAFE Act, after listening to physicians and families in a "fact-gathering" mission. The bill passed both chambers of the Ohio Legislature earlier this month, and Friday was the final day DeWine could veto it. The bill also would have blocked transgender student athletes from playing in girls' and women's sports, both in K-12 schools and in colleges and universities.
"Were I to sign House Bill 68, or were House Bill 68 to become law, Ohio would be saying that the state, that the government, knows better what is best for a child than the two people who know that child the best — the parents," DeWine said during his announcement.

His veto will almost certainly be overridden but once in a blue moon he surprises us.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ohio-governor-vetoes-ban-on-gender-affirming-care-for-transgender-minors/ar-AA1mcWdE

[elleng]

1. Thanks for posting; just saw headine.

Ohio Governor Blocks Bill Banning Transition Care for Minors.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/29/us/ohio-transgender-bill.html

[gratuitous]

2. If you live in Ohio, send the governor an e-mail of thanks

Try to encourage any scrap of humanity exhibited by a Republican.

[Hope22]

4. Dear Governor DeWine

Your attempt at trying to redeem yourself as a caring human is noted! The women of Ohio could have used your support two months ago. This one act of sanity does not absolve you of any of the damage you have done and continue to do here. Your decisions fly in the winds of religion and pocket lining entities. You remain a disgrace, a smear, an embarrassment to the good people in Ohio.


There I wrote it. You’re welcome!

[Bayard]

3. Pleasantly surprising

[gulliver]

5. "Gender-affirming care" is a likely mistake that parents should have the right to make

Thus far, I think of GAC in the same way I think of the opioid crisis and some types of mass population mental health drugging. The medical and pharma industry is a complete mess in this country, but there are so few GAC candidates that the harm is lower than these other "iatrogenic" harms. I would say that parents, as always, have the right to make decisions about their children, for good or ill.

I think a better bill would have extended any statute of limitations for lawsuits for GAC patients and detransitioner patients to the lifetime of the patient. That would allow parents to save the life of their child (to the extent they believe that is what they are doing). In the event that fraud, malpractice, or negligence are later uncovered, parents could then sue caregivers and child patients could sue parents and caregivers.

To me, that protects both children and the adults they will become while respecting parental rights in (as DeWine says) making gut-wrenching decisions.