Ohio Senate approves restrictions on gender-affirming care, transgender athletes

The Ohio Senate passed legislation Wednesday to prevent doctors from administering gender-affirming health care to transgender minors and bar trans student athletes from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

Ohio’s House Bill 68 passed the state’s Republican-controlled Senate in a 24-8 vote largely along party lines. One Republican — state Sen. Nathan Manning — voted with all Democrats against the measure, which will need to clear a final House vote before it is sent to Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who has so far declined to say whether he will sign it.

The Ohio House, which is also controlled by Republicans, passed the bill in a 64-28 vote in June. A week earlier, a provision to bar transgender women and girls from competing on female school sports teams was added to the measure, which was initially introduced as a standalone gender-affirming health care ban.

The bill, if passed, would also prevent health care providers from engaging in conduct that “aids or abets” in administering gender-affirming medical care to trans youths and bar mental health professionals from diagnosing or treating a minor with a “gender-related condition” without consent from the minor’s parents.

An amendment added this week by the state Senate would allow doctors to continue providing treatment to trans minors who are already receiving it.

Since 2021, 23 states have enacted laws that heavily restrict or ban gender-affirming health care for transgender minors, despite the fact that treatments including puberty blockers and hormones are considered medically necessary and often lifesaving by major medical organizations. Laws passed in states including Florida and Missouri also restrict access to care for certain adults.

Laws that prevent transgender women and girls from competing on female school sports teams have similarly been adopted by close to two dozen states since 2020, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks LGBTQ legislation. Those bans would violate federal civil rights law under the Biden administration’s proposed update to Title IX, which is slated to be finalized in March.

The U.S. House passed legislation in April to prohibit transgender athletes from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity nationwide by amending Title IX to recognize sex as “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” 

A second proposal to bar transgender athletes from school sports is expected to be filed this week.

The Ohio bill has received widespread backlash from LGBTQ advocates, medical professionals and families, and more than 600 people have testified against the measure. Republicans in the Legislature have argued that a significant majority of Ohio voters support the bill.

Ohio Senate Democrats on Wednesday called the proposal “cruel” and argued it would infringe on the rights of parents to make medical decisions on behalf of their children.

Republicans, meanwhile, said transgender minors are not old enough to properly consent to gender-affirming care. The bill, they said, would prevent young people from making medical decisions they may later regret.