FILE – Protesters advocating for transgender rights and healthcare stand outside of the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Patrick Orsagos, File)
An Ohio appeals court has ruled that the state’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender minors violates constitutional and parental rights.
A three-judge panel on Tuesday issued a permanent injunction blocking the enforcement of the portion of the law that bans the gender-affirming treatments.
Ohio House Bill 68, titled the “Saving Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act,” is a 2024 law “regarding gender transition services for minors.” It bans doctors from prescribing hormones, puberty blockers or gender reassignment surgery before patients turn 18. The bill also bans transgender girls and women from playing on female school sports teams, though the lawsuit ruled upon on Tuesday did not target that portion of the law.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, vetoed the bill in December 2023, but the Ohio House overrode the veto the following January.
The ACLU challenged the law in March 2024 on behalf of two families whose transgender teens would be negatively impacted if their access to medical care were restricted. After a five-day trial, the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas rejected the plaintiffs’ challenge, and allowed the ban to take effect. Judge Michael Holbrook, a Republican, threw out the equal protection, due process, and other constitutional arguments raised by plaintiffs in the case.
Tuesday’s ruling by a three-judge panel of the Ohio Court of Appeals overturned Holbrook’s ruling and analyzed the matter under both the U.S. Constitution and the Ohio state constitution. The panel found that the portions of the law banning the use of puberty blockers and hormone treatments for gender-affirming care violate the rights of all parents — not just the parents of transgender minors.
Ohio Appeals Judge Carly Edelstein penned the opinion for the panel, in which she said that a decision upholding HB68 would be “disastrous for all parents seeking access to modern medical care for their children.” Edelstein noted at length that the use of puberty blockers and hormone treatments are widely accepted as the medical standard for treating gender dysphoria.
The judge rejected Ohio’s argument that a parent’s “fundamental right” to make decisions about their child’s care was limited only to “a specific medical treatment that is ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition,”” saying that such an interpretation would render that fundamental right “largely meaningless.” Edelstein also called out the state for citing decisions from the 1800s, which she said bore little relation to advances in modern-day science.
“Surely, the force of this fundamental right is not handcuffed to the 19th century medical practices of bloodletting, purging, and the rampant prescribing of alcohol, cocaine, and opiate-based medicines,” said Edelstein. “Thus, we cannot, in good conscience, depart from the reality of scientific development and limit the scope of parents’ exercise of this fundamental right to the world as it was nearly two centuries ago.”
“Departure as such would be tantamount to jettison from common sense and logic,” the judge continued.
Edelstein wrote that the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy is precisely the type of medical decision that parents have a fundamental interest in making on behalf of their children.
The panel’s ruling blocks those portions of the law that relate to use of puberty blockers and hormone treatments in gender-affirming care for minors, but does not relate to the ban on surgical treatments. This is because the plaintiffs in the case had not claimed that they were seeking surgery and had not specifically challenged that provision.
Ohio Appeals Judge Michael Mentel concurred with Edelstein’s opinion without comment. Ohio Appeals Judge Julie Dorrian concurred in the judgment only, and penned a separate concurrence in which she said that she would find that the statute’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone drugs “is not narrowly tailored to promote the state’s compelling interest in protecting children.”
Freda Levenson, Legal Director at the ACLU of Ohio, said in a statement:
Today, we celebrate this win not only for our brave plaintiffs, but for all LGBTQ+ Ohioans and their families. This win restores the right of trans youth in Ohio to choose vitally important health care, with the support of their families and physicians. We are gratified by the Court’s decision, which soundly rejects this interference of politicians with Ohioans’ bodily autonomy. Although this litigation will likely not end here, we remain fervently committed to preventing this egregious bill from ever again taking effect. The path towards protecting the rights and civil liberties of trans Ohioans goes on, and we will continue to hold the torch.
You can read the full ruling here.
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