The Ohio House voted 65-28 to override DeWene’s veto of House Bill 68. The legislation blocks minors from undergoing body-mutilating medical procedures and taking body-altering hormones. It also blocks male athletes from participating in female-only sports.
“Today marks yet another victory for women and children in Ohio,” state Rep. Gary Click, who authored the bill, said in a statement. “It is hard to fathom that we live in a society that would tell children that they needs drugs and scalpels to live their authentic lives or that treats women as second-class citizens in their own spaces.”
Linda Harvey, president of Columbus, Ohio-based Mission: America, is pleased the Republican-controlled house voted to override the governor's veto.
"It was a fantastic result with 65 representatives voting [to override] – and we are so happy that so many strong Republicans in the state of Ohio have a heart for children and common sense," she tells AFN.
She's also pleased that the override came less than a week after DeWine signed an executive order banning Ohio hospitals and surgical facilities from performing gender transition surgery on minors, but didn't ban the dangerous puberty blockers.
"To me, it's unbelievably hypocritical for the governor to ban surgeries on minors for the purposes of trying to change gender but not ban the very, very dangerous and high-risk puberty-blocking drugs and opposite-sex hormones," she offers. "The damage that those treatments do to a child is lifelong."
And she admits being "quite optimistic" about the upcoming Senate vote as well. "I don't discount some last-minute shenanigans, but I think we should be very optimistic that this is going to be overridden totally and the governor's very cruel veto will be rejected," she concludes.
The Ohio Senate, also led by Republicans, will vote on whether to override the veto January 24.
1/11/2024 - Comments from Linda Harvey added.
