The Ohio Supreme Court Just Refused to Lift Restraining Order on Law That Would Protect Children from Puberty Blockers and Mutilation Surgery

After Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio vetoed the legislature’s Saving Ohio Adolescents from Experimentation Act in January, lawmakers overrode his veto.

The law protects children from “transgender” surgery, puberty blockers, and other hormones that could render them permanently sterile. The law also includes a provision to bar boys from joining girls’ sports teams.

Gov. DeWine agreed with barring surgery for minors but not drugs that could also cause permanently sterilization. He issued an emergency executive order barring the surgery. The order made no mention of protecting girls’ sports.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit to stop enforcement, and a court issued a temporary restraining order while litigation is pending. The Christian Post reported that Dave Yost, Ohio’s attorney general, filed an emergency motion with the Ohio Supreme Court.

That court has refused to lift the restraining order. From the Christian Post:

Yost contends that statewide injunctions are “rare” and that a single judge representing one county should not be able to make a decision that impacts the entire state, stressing a single judge “cannot wield more power than a Governor’s veto.”

Yost called the order an “extraordinary abuse of judicial power” coupled with a need for speed allowing the law to be enforced.

“Starting April 24, the Law would have protected female athletes from the risk to their safety, the affront to their privacy, and the sting to their dignity that the legislature believed would flow from allowing male athletes to annex their playing fields and locker rooms.”

The law also would have protected minors pressured into allowing doctors to do permanent damage to their bodies. The Christian Post reported about a girl who “detransitioned.” A surgeon cut off both her breasts, and she was prescribed cross-sex hormones.

“My body has been irreversibly damaged, and years later, my chest is still in bandages,” she said. “My doctors have abandoned me. New doctors look and shrug. As a result, I am suing those professionals who steered me into taking these destructive steps that have permanently scarred me.”

Photo credit: By Minh Nguyen – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, link