Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine earned plaudits just before the new year when he vetoed a ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors that the state Legislature had passed. Political pundits and onlookers portrayed DeWine as a compassionate Republican who was willing to step in to limit conservative extremism. But late Friday, the governor announced a new executive order and a set of rules from the state’s health department that could threaten access to gender-affirming care across the state, even for trans adults.
The governor announced a new executive order and a set of rules that could threaten access to gender-affirming care across the state, even for trans adults.
The new rules are designed to dramatically increase the administrative costs of providers of transition care throughout the state, by requiring providers to have a multidisciplinary team, including an endocrinologist and a psychiatrist, on staff or under contract. Further, the rules would require providers to notify the state of every gender dysphoria diagnosis along with some personal details of every patient.
Those under 21 would need to undergo a mandatory six-month waiting period and state-mandated psych evaluations before undergoing care.
All in all, the new rules could threaten the vast majority of the state’s gender care providers from providing such care. In a statement, the ACLU of Ohio said the executive order “could amount to a de facto ban on care for transgender youth and adults.”
The new state rules are subject to a public comment period, though DeWine has declared this issue so important that it deserves “emergency” status, meaning he seeks to forgo the usual state administrative rulemaking process.
Implementing the new rules would put Ohio right next to Florida on a list of most anti-trans states. Florida has similarly implemented rules over the last year that have served to cut even trans adults off gender-affirming care.
But to truly understand the moves the governor is making…
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