The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the state of Ohio on Tuesday to block a bill that would ban puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy care for minors from taking effect.
House Bill 68 is set to take effect on April 24 after Republicans in the state House and Senate overrode the veto of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two 12-year-old transgender girls and their families in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
The bill protects children under the age of 18 from being prescribed unalterable hormones and puberty blockers as well as gender reassignment surgery, the state attorney general said.
"We protect children with various restrictions that do not apply to adults — from signing legal contracts to buying alcohol and tobacco and more. As I promised during the veto override, my office will defend this constitutional statute," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a post on X on Tuesday.
H.B. 68 also bans biological men from playing girls sports, which the ACLU is not challenging. However, the ACLU is arguing that the combined bill violates the state Constitution's single-subject rule.
"By combining these two discrete subject matters into a single bill, H.B. 68 contains a disunity of subject matter," the lawsuit states. "In sum, the General Assembly passed a bill containing more than one subject, in violation of the Ohio Constitution."
The Ohio High School Athletic Association allows biological boys to play girls sports if they've completed one year of hormone therapy.
Children under 18 already receiving treatments will be grandfathered in under the new law.
With Ohio, 23 states now ban medication and surgery for youth under 18, pending the outcome of litigation, while another banned surgical care for minors in 2022, also pending litigation, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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