ACLU Sues Ohio Over Law Banning Trans Sex-Change Surgeries For Minors

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against Ohio Tuesday after state lawmakers passed a law banning transgender hormones and sex-change surgeries for minors.

The law, which is set to go into effect in April, bars doctors from performing sex-change surgeries and prescribing cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to minors. The ACLU announced that they filed a lawsuit on behalf of two families with children who identify as transgender, arguing that they will lose access to “critical, medically necessary healthcare” if the law is allowed to go into effect, according to a press release.

“The ban on gender-affirming care will cause severe harm to transgender youth. These personal, private medical decisions should remain between families and doctors; they don’t belong to politicians,” Freda Levenson, legal director at the ACLU of Ohio, said in a statement. “H.B. 68 violates the Ohio Constitution in multiple ways. We will fight in court to ensure that trans youth and their parents can access critically important, lifesaving healthcare without government intrusion.”

The families are suing on behalf of their 12-year-old children, one of whom is already receiving transgender medical care and the other is “being monitored for the onset of puberty,” according to the lawsuit. The ACLU argues that the state of Ohio is putting children at risk of “severe anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, and decreased quality of life” if they are not allowed to receive transgender medical procedures.

The law was vetoed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in December, who claimed that he was doing it to protect parental rights. DeWine signed an executive order in January that banned sex-change surgeries for minors but removed the provision barring physicians from prescribing hormones.

GOP elected officials in the state House and Senate, however, overrode the veto only weeks later with a 65 to 28 and 28 to 4 vote, respectively, making Ohio the 23rd state to ban such procedures for minors. DeWine was also heavily criticized after it was revealed that the governor received over $40,000 in donations from Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, Cincinnati Children’s, Nationwide Children’s Hospital and ProMedica Children’s Hospital, all of whom support transgender medical care.