Ohio yanks restrictions on trans healthcare for adults

As part of Ohio’s ongoing partisan battle over transgender healthcare, activists can claim a significant victory. The state’s Health Department is backpedaling on proposed restrictions for transgender adults.

The draconian ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth will remain.

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While Gov. Mike DeWine (R) vetoed legislation that banned gender-affirming care for trans minors and trans women and girls from participating in scholastic sports, the state senate overrode the veto. The override made Ohio the 23^rd state to ban gender-affirming care for trans minors and the 24^th to ban trans sports participation.

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DeWine also announced that the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Department of Health and Addiction Services would on Friday file draft rules that would prevent “fly-by-night” providers from providing gender-affirming care (including medication) to adults “with no counseling and no basic standards to assure quality of care.”

The department’s draft rules contained several items concerning transgender adults, activists, and medical professionals. Residents were encouraged to comment and share concerns with health officials and more than 6,800 emails were sent about the proposals.

One of the items was a recommendation that hospitals and clinics not administer care to transgender people of any age without a treatment plan created by a team of specialists – including a medical ethicist.

Not many medical ethicists exist in the state, and large hospitals and healthcare systems generally employ them. Smaller clinics do not usually have them on staff. Most trans people seek care through smaller clinics.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the rules would amount to a “de facto ban” on care in the state.

“The Department is grateful to those individuals and organizations who took time to offer comments as we seek to adopt rules to protect Ohio’s children. Having reviewed the submitted comments and considered the feedback, the Department has revised the proposed rules,” reads a memo from the state Health Department announcing the change.

“The comments revealed a significant interest in the original draft’s impact on adult patients,” the department wrote. “The revised quality standard rules are now applicable only to care for minors.”

While all mentions of transgender adults were removed, so was the requirement that a medical ethicist be involved in youth healthcare. The amended rules also expanded the list of eligible service providers who could constitute a care team for minors to acknowledge the small number of specialists available in the state.

“The requirement for review by a medical ethicist was never applicable to individual patient care plans but rather to institutional operations. However, to alleviate confusion and because of assurances from healthcare leaders that institutions already appropriately engage medical ethics professionals in this type of care, the proposed rule’s requirement has been removed,” the department added.

A trans advocacy group in Ohio says 68 families have already contacted them seeking emergency relocation funds to flee the state.