Gov. DeWine vetoes bill that would have barred men from women’s sports
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has vetoed House Bill 68, a collective of the ‘Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act’ and the ‘Save Women's Sports Act.’
The bill that would have kept biological males from competing against women in athletic competition.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed a bill that would have barred men from women’s sports and prohibited gender reassignment surgeries and drugs for minors.
House Bill 68, which contained two proposed acts, was vetoed on Dec. 29 by the governor, according to a statement issued by his office.
One of the acts, the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” would have required both public and private schools to “designate intercollegiate athletic teams and sports based on the sex.”
[RELATED: Protection of Women’s Sports Act passes House]
The bill would have explicitly banned schools from allowing “individuals of the male sex to participate on athletic teams or in athletic competitions designated for only participants of the female sex.”
The act also included a recourse for women who were affected by men competing against them, saying, “Any participant who is deprived of an athletic opportunity or suffers a direct or indirect harm as a result of a violation of this section has a private cause of action for injunctive relief, damages, and any other relief available against the state institution or the private college.”
DeWine did not comment on this part of the bill in his statement explaining the veto.
The governor only addressed the “Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act” in his statement, saying, “Were I to sign Substitute House Bill 68 or were Substitute House Bill 68 to become law, Ohio would be saying that the State, that the government, knows what is best medically for a child rather than the two people who love that child the most, the parents.”
The governor says he consulted people on “all sides of the issue” before making his decision, and that he ultimately vetoed it because some parents told him their child “would be dead today if they had not received the treatment they received from an Ohio children’s hospital.”
DeWine did acknowledge some concerns however, such as a lack of data pertaining to individuals who have undergone gender reassignment and clinics that “pop up and try to sell patients inadequate or even ideological treatments.”
He also noted that “no surgery of this kind should ever be performed on those under the age of 18,” referring to gender reassignment surgery.
The governor indicated that he will direct his “administration and the relevant agencies to begin work on administrative rules” to address these issues.
Many were unsatisfied with DeWine’s decision, including Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens, who called the move “disappointing” in a statement.
The House plans to convene on Jan.10 to attempt to override the veto.
All relevant parties were contacted for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
