A panel of three appeals court justices has deemed Ohio’s legislation prohibiting gender transition treatment for adolescents unconstitutional. However, House Bill 68 is headed to the Ohio Supreme Court for a final determination.
Tenth District Court of Appeals judges Julia Dorrian, Michael Mental, and Carly Edelstein, all Democrats, wrote in their decision that “we conclude that parents have a fundamental right to seek medical care for their children” and that the statute prevents them from doing so.
Moe v Yost: Appeal Court Decision 3-18-25.pdf
“H.B. 68 categorically prevents parents from following the recommendations of qualified medical professionals and choosing to treat their children’s gender dysphoria with puberty blockers and hormone therapy,” according to the judges.
The judges also stated that the verdict will have a “disastrous” impact on parents seeking medical care for their transgender children.
“Surely, the force of this fundamental right is not handcuffed to the 19th century medical practices of bloodletting, purging, and the rampant prescribing of alcohol, cocaine, and opiate-based medicines,” the ruling’s judges concluded. “Thus, we cannot, in good conscience, deviate from the fact of scientific growth and confine the extent of parents’ exercise of this fundamental right to the world as it existed nearly two centuries ago. Departure would be equal to abandoning common sense and logic.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio brought the lawsuit on behalf of the families of two transgender children.
According to legal director Freda Levenson, “We are gratified by the Court’s decision, which soundly rejects this interference of politicians with Ohioans’ bodily autonomy.”
“The state’s ban is discriminatory, baseless, and a danger to the well-being of the same Ohioan youth lawmakers claim to want to protect,” said ACLU senior staff attorney Harper Seldin in a statement. “It’s also part of a sweeping effort to drive trans people out of public life altogether by controlling our health care, our families, and our lives.”
Republican Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement that the case is not concluded.
“This is a no-brainer; we are challenging the verdict and will want an emergency stay. “I will not stop fighting to protect these unprotected children,” Yost stated. “Ohio’s elected officials legitimately passed legislation to protect minors from irreversible chemical sex change surgeries, and the trial court affirmed it. But now the 10th district court of appeals has just approved these permanent medical operations against kids.”
Yost will petition the appellate court for an emergency stay and will appeal the verdict to the Ohio Supreme Court.
House Bill 68, which prohibits transgender athletes from participation in girls’ sports and gender change therapies for minors, was passed in December 2023. Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed it, saying that medical decisions for transgender children should be made by parents, some of whom informed him their children would not be living without these procedures.
In January 2024, Republican legislators overrode his veto, prompting the ACLU to file a lawsuit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. A judge affirmed the law, and the ACLU appealed, sending the matter to the Tenth District Court of Appeals.
