An Ohio judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a Republican-backed state law banning gender-affirming care, such as puberty blockers and hormones, for transgender minors from taking effect later this month.
\nJudge Michael Holbrook of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas said that the two transgender children and their families who are suing to challenge the law, which would also prevent transgender girls from competing on girls\u2019 sports teams, would be permanently harmed if the law takes effect on April 24.
\nThe order will remain in place for two weeks, or until a hearing on the families\u2019 motion for a longer-term order blocking the law. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost in a statement said he was confident the law would be upheld.
\n\u201cThis is just the first page of the book,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will fight vigorously to defend this properly enacted statute, which protects our children from irrevocable adult decisions.\u201d
\nOhio is one of at least 22 Republican-controlled states that have passed laws restricting gender-affirming care. Tuesday\u2019s ruling comes a day after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Idaho to enforce its ban while it appeals a lower court order blocking it.
\nOhio\u2019s Republican-controlled legislature passed its law in January.
\nThe vote overrode the veto of Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican who said he made his decision after hearing from parents of transgender youth that gender-affirming care had been lifesaving for their children.
\nIn his ruling, Holbrook said the families who challenged the law were likely to succeed in their argument that it improperly addressed two separate subjects, healthcare and sports, rather than a single subject as required by the Ohio constitution.
\nHe did not directly address whether they were likely to succeed in proving that the law was discriminatory and took away families\u2019 right to make choices about their healthcare.
\n\u201cWe are thrilled and relieved that Ohio\u2019s ban on gender-affirming healthcare has been halted and that transgender youth can continue, for the near term at least, to access medically necessary healthcare,\u201d Freda Levenson of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
\n(Reuters)Transgender healthcare. gender-affirming care, transgender minors, Ohio judge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An Ohio judge has temporarily blocked a Republican-backed state law banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, including puberty blockers and hormones. The law would also prevent transgender girls from competing on girls’ sports teams. The judge’s order will remain in place for two weeks, or until a hearing on the families’ motion for a longer-term block of the law. Ohio is one of at least 22 Republican-controlled states that have passed laws restricting gender-affirming care. Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, had vetoed the law after hearing from parents of transgender youth that gender-affirming care had been lifesaving for their children. The judge ruled that the families challenging the law were likely to succeed in their argument that it improperly addressed healthcare and sports as separate subjects, rather than a single subject as required by the Ohio constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6552,580,2149,5292,6694,932,5193,5596,988,6800,5098,793,3895,6242,5679,941,3406,6802,1022,421,1827,168,4592,6799,6801,173,4115,1774,6305,18,5447],"class_list":["post-8538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-access","tag-attorney-general","tag-ban","tag-children","tag-constitution","tag-court","tag-decisions","tag-families","tag-fight","tag-gender-affirming-care","tag-governor","tag-healthcare","tag-hearing","tag-judge","tag-law","tag-lgbt","tag-minors","tag-ohio-judge","tag-republican","tag-sports","tag-statement","tag-supreme-court","tag-teams","tag-trans","tag-transgender-minors","tag-usa","tag-veto","tag-vote","tag-who","tag-world","tag-youth"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n