The Ohio Senate has voted to override Republican Governor Mike DeWine's veto of a bill banning sex change hormones and procedures for minors.
The legislation also prohibits biological males from playing on sports teams for female high school and college students.
The Senate voted 23-9 on Wednesday to override the veto of Ohio House Bill 68.
The Ohio House had already voted to override DeWine’s veto on January 10. Both the House and Senate have Republican supermajorities.
Doctors who violate the law and provide sex change treatments for minors may be “subject to discipline by the applicable professional licensing board.”
There are exceptions for intersex minors with "ambiguous or abnormal" sex characteristics. Transgender minors who are already receiving treatments will also be grandfathered in.
Republican lawmakers had passed the bill with overwhelming support in both chambers, but the governor claimed that the law could cause youth suicides.
“Parents are making decisions about the most precious thing in their life, their child, and none of us should underestimate the gravity and the difficulty of those decisions,” the governor said during a press conference about the veto. “Many parents have told me that their child would be dead today if they had not received the treatment they received from an Ohio children’s hospital.”
DeWine told reporters that the ban would do "more harm than good."
“I’ve also been told by those who are now grown adults that, but for this care, they would have taken their lives when they were teenagers,” DeWine continued. “I cannot sign this bill as it is currently written, and just a few minutes ago, I vetoed the bill.”
Despite his grand progressive assertions while vetoing the bill, DeWine signed an executive order banning sex change surgeries for minors a week later.
The order stated, "Although I vetoed Substitute House Bill 68, I stated clearly in my Veto Message that I agreed with the General Assembly that no gender transition surgeries should be performed on anyone under the age of 18, and I directed agencies under my purview to draft rules to ban this practice in Ohio."
DeWine's order added that these "rules are necessary to protect Ohio’s children and families."
