Ohio’s Gender-Affirming Care Ban for Minors Survives Trial Court

An Ohio law that will force transgender minors to go out of state to seek puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria doesn’t violate various provisions of the state’s constitution, a trial judge said Tuesday.

Transgender adolescents and their parents had standing to challenge the state’s gender-affirming care ban, Judge Michael J. Holbrook, of the Ohio Court of Common Pleas for Franklin County said. But they failed to show that the provision violates the Ohio Constitution’s single-subject rule or a provision that gives citizens freedom to make their own health-care decisions, nor does it violate the equal ...