Ohio Republicans Are Trying to Let Citizens Sue Doctors Who Care for Trans Youth

The bill would ban transition-related care for youth outright, and also ban insurance companies from covering it.
COLUMBUS UNITED STATES  20210624 Transgender rights advocate holds a sign outside the Ohio Statehouse during the...
COLUMBUS, UNITED STATES - 2021/06/24: Transgender rights advocate holds a sign outside the Ohio Statehouse during the rally.Transgender rights advocates stood outside of the Ohio Statehouse to oppose and bring attention to an amendment to a bill that would ban transgender women from participating in high school and college women sports. The original bill that this transgender ban was added to dealt with compensation for college students to profit off of their name, image and likeness. The addition of transgender ban to this bill was a surprise, because a transgender ban bill already is in existence. (Photo by Stephen Zenner/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)SOPA Images

 

Ohio Republicans have introduced a bill that would punish medical professionals for providing gender-affirming care to minors.

House Bill 454, also called the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (or “SAFE”) Act, would prohibit children under the age of 18 from receiving hormone treatments, puberty blockers, or other gender-affirming healthcare, even with parental consent, and charge any doctor who provides such care with “unprofessional conduct.” The legislation would subject such providers to discipline from their licensing entities, and also allow doctors to be sued for providing gender-affirming care.

The bill would ban Ohio Medicaid and other insurance plans from covering transition-related treatments for minors and would revoke public funding to any health care provider offering gender-affirming care to those under 18. Even more, it would require school staff like teachers, nurses, and counselors to out transgender children to their parents.

HB 454 was introduced by Republican Reps. Gary Click and Diane V. Grendell and is sponsored by 23 other Republicans. The Center for Christian Virtue (CCV), a conservative Christian public policy advocacy organization, helped write the legislation.

Click claimed in a statement that the bill would “save lives.”

"The SAFE Act reflects the need for a more compassionate process that recognizes that this is an adult decision that should wait until an individual is fully capable of weighing the risks and rewards of such permanent medicalized alterations,” Click said, according to Spectrum News.

In reality, the lives of minors who do not receive gender-affirming care are far more at risk. Studies have shown that transition-related treatments reduce suicidal ideation and attempts in youth.

Ohio Senate Assistant Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D) voiced her own concerns that this bill would threaten the lives of minors.

"My fear is that there are consequences that while the adults in the room are fighting about who gets to say what about what their future is, the children are the most affected and could tragically take some action to end their own lives because they do not feel the support that they need," Antonio told Spectrum News.

Maria Bruno, public policy director for Equality Ohio, also pointed out the myriad of pediatric associations that support gender-affirming care.

“This bill attempts to ban evidence-based medical treatment that is supported by medical professionals, including but not limited to the American Academy of Pediatricians, the Endocrine Society, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Psychiatric Association,” she told Cleveland.com. In fact, every major medical association supports gender-affirming care, according to the American Medical Association.

H.B. 454 is similar to another bill passed this year in Arkansas that criminalized medical professionals for providing gender-affirming care to youth. That bill was known as the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (“SAFE”) Act.

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Critics say it would be the worst anti-trans law ever enacted in the United States.

Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson vetoed the legislation, calling it “vast government overreach,” but the legislature overrode his veto and passed it anyway. A judge then blocked the law from taking effect while litigation continues.

Bruno, of Equality Ohio, expects a lawsuit to take place in Ohio as well if the bill should pass. “If HB 454 moves forward, Ohio taxpayers will be footing the bill when valid legal challenges undoubtedly arise,” Bruno told Cleveland.com. “We hope the majority of Ohio’s lawmakers will see through this political grandstanding and reject this illegal, cruel attempt to harm transgender youth in Ohio.”

Twice this year, Ohio Republicans have also attempted to pass one of the strictest anti-trans sports bills in the country, though it failed both times. In July, the state’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine also approved a budget for next year containing language that allows medical professionals to refuse care to patients based on religious beliefs.

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