COLUMBUS, Ohio — After a judge ruled to uphold Ohio’s gender-affirming care ban on Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union said it immediately filed to appeal the ruling. The organization filed the lawsuit several months ago after the bill was enacted into law by the state legislature.
"We have already filed a notice of appeal. That's how strongly we feel and how confident we are,” said Freda Levenson, the legal director for the ACLU of Ohio.
Levenson said the ban on gender-affirming care for minors goes against the freedoms they aim to protect.
"The government should not come between people and their doctor,” Levenson said.
Despite Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of House Bill 68 in December, the Ohio House of Representatives and Senate overrode his veto and put the bill into law in January. It was set to go into effect 90 days later.
But in March, the ACLU of Ohio filed a lawsuit claiming the bill was unconstitutional. In April, the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the bill from going into effect. The restraining order was extended until through the start date of the trial in mid-July.
"It's care that's proven to be safe, effective, and often times life-saving,” Levenson said.
Over the last few weeks, the lawsuit was tried in court. The ACLU claimed the Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act violates four separate clauses of the Ohio constitution.
But a 13-page decision from Franklin County Judge Michael Holbrook on Tuesday states it does not violate any of those clauses. The ruling bans gender-affirming care for minors and prevents transgender student athletes from participating in women’s sports, which goes into effect immediately.
"This is a big deal that this law was passed and now has been upheld,” said Aaron Baer, president of Center for Christian Virtue.
Baer said this fight is about protecting kids.
"It's dangerous to put kids on puberty blocking drugs that can sterilize them for life, or put them on wrong sex hormones… These procedures should not be done on children and we presented so much evidence from medical experts and other leading experts to show that this should not be done,” Baer said.
But families like Nick Bates, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America deacon, feel differently. As the father of a nonbinary high school freshman, Bates said this bill is about allowing kids to be who they are and to feel accepted.
"Being a parent is hard enough. Being a teenager is hard enough and it only makes it more difficult when you have your government telling you that you don't belong,” Bates said.
Bethany McCorkle, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s communications director, released a statement Tuesday stating, "The Attorney General applauds the trial court's decision. This case has always been about the legislature's authority to enact a law to protect our children from making irreversible medical and surgical decisions about their bodies. The law doesn't say 'no' forever; it simply says 'not now' while the child is still growing."
Parties on both sides said they’ll continue to fight for what they believe in.