CLOUDSIDE, Ohio — A split Ohio Supreme Court decided on Tuesday that Ohio can keep its ban on gender-affirming care for children in place while an appeal is being heard. Transgender girls and women are also not allowed to play sports for girls by law.
A lower court’s decision from March had stopped the 2023 law from going into force. The high court’s 4-3 decision overturns that decision.
Republicans in Ohio won the case because of the order. Attorney General Dave Yost has called it a fight “to protect these unprotected children.”
Yost no longer agrees with the governor, fellow Republican Mike DeWine, on this topic. In December 2023, DeWine vetoed what was called the SAFE Act, saying it was “thoughtful,” “limited,” and “pro-life.” The move was quickly overturned by the GOP-controlled Legislature.
Justice Pat DeWine, who is the son of the governor, joined the three new Republican judges, Joseph Deters, Megan Shanahan, and Dan Hawkins, in making the law more strict again. Justices Jennifer Brunner and Pat Fischer, along with Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy, did not agree.
The law says that teens and young adults can’t get counseling, surgery, or hormone therapy unless they are already getting these treatments and a doctor says it would be dangerous for them to stop. It also has rules about sports.
The lawsuit was filed in March 2024 by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio, and the global law firm Goodwin. They said the law not only doesn’t let transgender kids and teens get health care, but it also discriminates against them getting it by letting other people use the same medications for other reasons.
They lost in the trial court, but later they were able to get the law briefly blocked by the 10th District Court of Appeals. This was because the law “reasonably limits parents’ rights,” which was different from what the lower court judge had said.
The Center for Christian Virtue, which worked to get the rule passed, was very happy with Tuesday’s decision.
“The Supreme Court sided with the Ohio Constitution by overturning the lower court,” President Aaron Baer said in a statement. “The General Assembly has every power to pass laws protecting children like the SAFE Act.”