COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Nationwide Children's Hospital confirmed on Friday it will soon no longer provide any forms of treatment known as gender-affirming care for transgender patients.
The hospital said in a statement it's ending all such trans medical care, like puberty blockers and hormone therapy, effective Sept. 26. The change will also impact those patients that were "grandfathered in" when the Ohio Statehouse passed House Bill 68, a contested 2023 law banning youth from receiving gender-affirming care.
"Although we are currently in compliance with state and federal regulations, in order to proactively plan and support our providers and patients in a rapidly changing regulatory environment, Nationwide Children's providers will discontinue prescribing gender-affirming medications," the statement said.
"The hospital will be working with affected patients to end their prescriptions, always with patient safety as a top priority," the statement continued. "Nationwide Children's will continue to support these patients and families through the provision of behavioral health services, and any other needed healthcare."
Nationwide Children's announcement comes after the Ohio Supreme Court said in July it will decide whether H.B. 68 is constitutional. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost asked the justices to consider the case after an appeals court ruled in March that the law is unconstitutional, arguing it "infringes on parents' fundamental right to direct the medical care of their children."
Ohio's top court, which voted 6-1 along party lines to take up Yost's appeal, said in late April that the state can continue enforcing the law while litigation continues.
Boding well for H.B. 68, a Tennessee law that also prohibits trans minors from receiving such treatment was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in June. Still, the ACLU of Ohio, which filed the lawsuit against H.B. 68 on behalf of two families with trans children, previously said it remains confident in challenging Ohio's version of the law.
H.B. 68, which also bans trans female athletes' participation in women's sports, faced a contentious road while advancing through Ohio's legislature. The measure was condemned by top Ohio doctors, including Nick Lashutka, president of the Ohio Children's Hospital Association, who argued at the Statehouse in 2023 that "it is a dangerous precedent for government to dictate when medication is appropriate in pediatrics."
While the Statehouse approved H.B. 68 in December 2023, Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed the legislation the following month. The governor said he made his decision after visiting patients at five children's hospitals, arguing that "these are gut-wrenching decisions that should be made by parents and should be informed by teams of doctors." Still, both chambers of the Statehouse moved to override DeWine's veto.
The ACLU filed its lawsuit against H.B. 68 later that spring, putting the law temporarily on hold and setting up a five-day Franklin County trial in July 2024. Ultimately, Common Pleas Judge Michael Holbrook ruled that the legislation could go into effect given it didn't violate Ohio's constitution. The ACLU then appealed Holbrook's decision to the appeals court.
"This has been a long hard fight to protect minors in the state of Ohio," said Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery), H.B. 68's primary sponsor, in a statement after Holbrook's ruling. "A strong cross-section of Ohioans ... recognize that decisions like these are too consequential to be made for and by minors who are incapable of providing informed consent."
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