Day: January 7, 2024

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Signs Executive Order Banning Gender Surgeries For Minors

Ohio GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Mike DeWine Attends Election Night In Columbus COLUMBUS, OH - NOVEMBER 06: Republican Gubernatorial-elect Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine gives his victory speech after winning the Ohio gubernatorial race at the Ohio Republican Party's election night party at the Sheraton Capitol Square on November 6, 2018 in Columbus, Ohio. DeWine defeated Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Richard Cordray to win the Ohio governorship. (Photo by Justin Merriman/Getty Images)

OAN’s Abril Elfi
8:07 AM – Sunday, January 7, 2024

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/ohio-gov-mike-dewine-signs-executive-order-banning-gender-surgeries-for-minors/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has issued an executive order banning hospitals from performing gender-affirming surgeries on minors.

About a week after vetoing a bill that would have banned all gender-affirming care for minors, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers, DeWine (R-Ohio) announced an executive order on Friday that will immediately prohibit transition-related surgeries for minors in the state.

“A week has gone by, and I still feel just as strongly as I did that day,” DeWine said at a news conference, reaffirming his decision to veto the broader ban. “I believe the parents, not the government, should be making these crucial decisions for their children.”

In addition to announcing his new executive order at the press conference, DeWine expressed concern about “fly-by-night” clinics that offer hormone therapy to transgender adults “without the lead-in psychiatric care that we know is so very, very important.”

Consequently, he declared that the Ohio Department of Health and Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services would adopt and implement new administrative guidelines for adults and minors seeking transition-related care following a public comment period.

These regulations would apply to those receiving transition-related care and include that informed consent must be given by patients before beginning treatment and after being informed of the risks associated with receiving gender-affirming care. 

Patients must also undergo psychological counseling prior to beginning hormone therapy or other treatments for gender dysphoria, which is the distress caused by a mismatch between an individual’s assigned sex at birth and their gender identity. 

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, a nonprofit professional organization devoted to transgender health care, has generally discouraged surgery for minors.

When minors do undergo surgery, it is typically a double mastectomy, sometimes referred to as top surgery, and they stated that minors are never eligible for genital surgery.

A three-fifths majority vote in the Ohio General Assembly, which is led by a Republican supermajority, would be required to override the veto of the governor. 

According to reports, the Ohio House intends to vote on the override as soon as it reconvenes from its early winter break.

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Trump Remains His Own Worst Enemy. Here’s Why.

MATT MARGOLIS | 2:08 PM ON JANUARY 07, 2024
SEE: https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/01/07/trump-remains-his-own-worst-enemy-heres-why-n4925281; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:
AP Photo/Reba Saldanha

Donald Trump wants to replace the poorly named Affordable Care Act with something better, and I’m all for it. Obamacare not only managed to send premiums skyrocketing, but made coverage so much worse. I can’t say enough bad things about it. The only time I ever saw my premium go down was during the Trump administration, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. The biggest spike in premiums occurred in November, when I found out that if I renewed my plans as is, it would cost me nearly $300 more a month.

I’m sure I’m not the only person who experienced sticker shock this year. And when you add the pain of inflation into the mix, it seems likely there will be renewed hunger to fix the broken system Barack Obama made for us.

And yet the discussion about appealing Obamacare got sidelined on Friday when Trump was speaking in Iowa and not only blasted the legislation but also John McCain, who inexplicably saved it in July 2017, despite campaigning on the promise to kill Obamacare and replace it with something that actually worked.

Criticizing the late John McCain for his inexplicable and detrimental vote is absolutely fair, but Trump managed to make a heaping mess of his criticism. The first thing I heard about that rally was that Trump said, “Obamacare is a catastrophe; nobody talks about it. Without John McCain, we would’ve had it done. John McCain, for some reason, couldn’t get his arm up that day."

When I saw this quote, I cringed.

In 2008, the Obama-Biden campaign accused John McCain of being out of touch and old-fashioned because he didn't know how to use a computer or send emails. The ad backfired because the issue wasn't so much that McCain didn't know how to use them, but that his war injuries made it impossible. McCain's war injuries were well known at that point, having been discussed by the media years prior. His injuries prevented him from combing his own hair or typing on a keyboard, among other daily activities many people take for granted. As the Boston Globe noted in 2000, he couldn't "raise his arm above his shoulder."

There was no excuse for such an insensitive attack, and certainly Donald Trump should know better than to allude to McCain's injuries that way.

Naturally, it prompted a response from John McCain's daughter, Meghan McCain.

“My dad was an American hero,” she wrote in a post on X/Twitter. “An icon. A patriot that will be remembered throughout history. I cannot buy a bagel without someone approaching me about how much they loved and miss him."

Related: Is This Trump's Biggest Unforced Error of the 2024 Campaign?

Even if we give Trump the benefit of the doubt that he didn't know that McCain's injuries prevented him from being able to raise his arms, it was still a sloppy way to address the issue. Now the media is scrambling to push the narrative that Trump was mocking McCain's injuries from his time as a prisoner of war rather than discussing the faults of Obamacare. In a way, it's hard to blame them, because that's exactly the impression I got from seeing the quote.

Trump needs to be much more disciplined going forward because these are the kinds of mistakes he can't afford to make in such a consequential election.

Record-Breaking Illegal Immigration Numbers, and Joe & Hunter, with Ben Shapiro & IRS Whistleblowers

Megyn Kelly is joined by Ben Shapiro, host of The Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro Show, to talk about the current state of the illegal immigration border crisis, December 2023 being the worst month of border encounters ever, illegal immigration rates under Trump versus Biden, the American public's opposition to Biden's immigration policies, Dave Chappelle's new special taking aim at radical trans ideology, video of actor Tommy Dorfman claiming misgendering by a Delta airline worker and the Delta worker's pushback garnering support, the obsession over sexual identity, the intra-conservative fighting happening among the GOP right now when it comes to foreign policy, Tucker Carlson’s recent negative comments about Shapiro, the state of the GOP 2024 primary, Trump's dominance and whether Haley or DeSantis still have a shot, and more. Then Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, IRS whistleblowers, join to discuss how they've been vindicated after Hunter Biden was charged in California on new tax charges, the story behind Hunter Biden’s plea deal falling apart, all the ways the IRS whistleblowers have been proven right, the attacks on the whistleblowers from top Democrats and Hunter Biden's lawyers, David Weiss now bringing the charges Democrats claimed were invalid, potential evidence Joe Biden was involved in Hunter’s crimes, Hunter Biden now suing the IRS and the whistleblowers

Israel-Hamas war: Airstrike kills Hamas commanders, grandson of founder killed

New reports reveal grandson of Hamas founder killed in Israeli airstrike. This as the war between Israel and Hamas enters its 4th month. The IDF and Shin Bet announce that the commander of Hamas’s Nuseirat battalion, Ismail Siraj, and his deputy, Ahmed Wahaba, were killed in an airstrike that hit the Gaza strip. Siraj previously served as a commander of a Hamas Nukhba force company, and was also involved in manufacturing rockets, according to the joint statement.