All About the Money? Governor Dewine Vetoes Bill Banning Transgender Treatments for Kids

They say follow the money to find the motive. In the case of Ohio Governor’s recent veto of a bill protecting minors and supported by conservatives, the money has been tracked to a revealing finding.

On Friday (December 29), the Republican Governor of Ohio Mike DeWine announced vetoing House Bill 68 that was passed by the state’s House and Senate. The bill proposed to protect minors from medical procedures for transgenderism as well as ban transgender school students from competing in sports with young athletes other than their biological gender. Explaining his decision to veto the legislation, Governor DeWine said that all medical decisions for children are best left to the parents.

DeWine’s veto disappointed and angered conservatives across the country. President Trump called out DeWine on the veto and said that DeWine has fallen to the radical left.

The Washington Stand reported on Wednesday (January 3) that Ohio lawmakers who passed the bill have scheduled a special session of the House for January 10 to override Governor DeWine’s veto of House Bill 68. The story cited Speaker of the House Jason C. Stephens assuring supporters of the legislation:

“Momentum is on our side, and we will see this through. We will win this.”

A major development in the story also made news on Friday (December 29) when The Western Journal reported on substantial donations made to DeWine by organizations that support “transgender medical care” in minors.

A review of the donations received by the Governor from 2018 to 2023 show that he got more than $40 thousand from four hospitals that allow offering puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors. Among the hospitals named in the story that donated to DeWine include: Ohio Children’s Hospital Association (OCHA), Cincinnati Children’s, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and ProMedica Children’s Hospital. Conservative journalist Ben Kew of The Western Journal called it bribery and wrote that Dewine should be recalled.

Seattle-based journalist Jonathan Choe commented that this scrutiny reveals a potential motive.

Governor DeWine has previously faced an open recall petition on the popular activism site Change.org for using false information and propaganda to manipulate the people of Ohio and seize their basic liberties during the COVID-19 emergency in 2020. Conservatives supporting that petition called DeWine “a gun grabbing, constitution circumventing communist” and “a “tyrant” who is “driving Ohio into the grave with these idiotic lockdowns.”