California Attorney General Rob Bonta was reported to have banned state-funded travel to Ohio, making it the 18th state in their list, because of protections over medical workers' religious freedoms.
CBN News said Ohio has been recently added to California's list of places it has banned for state-funded travel because the state is said to be discriminating the LGBTQ community. Bonta announced that the ban will take effect on September 30 and particularly cited Ohio's House Bill 110 as the reason for it.
According to Bonta, the said bill "will allow medical providers in the state to deny care to LGBTQ+ Americans, including Californians traveling in Ohio."
Ohio Governor Michael DeWine signed House Bill 110 in July to protect medical workers rights to refuse procedures contrary to their religious beliefs. The bill said that "whenever a situation arises in which a requested course of treatment includes a particular health care service that conflicts with the moral, ethical, or religious beliefs or convictions of a medical practitioner, the medical practitioner shall be excused from participating" it.
Bonta, the 34th Attorney General of the State that is first to be of Filipino descent, said in a statement that the House Bill 110 is "wrong" for it blocks access to the services that save life. He particularly cited denying prescription for abortion, HIV, and transgender care. Such a bill, he explained, is contrary to California's laws that uphold the rights of LGBTQ Americans. The travel restriction is their just action against the bill.
"Blocking access to life-saving care is wrong. Period. Whether it's denying a prescription for medication that prevents the spread of HIV, refusing to provide gender-affirming care, or undermining a woman's right to choose, HB 110 unnecessarily puts the health of Americans at risk," Bonta declared.
"Critically, the law runs afoul of Assembly Bill 1887. When states discriminate against LGBTQ+ Americans, the California Department of Justice must act. That's why--in line with the law--we're adding Ohio to California's state-funded travel restrictions list," he added.
According to the statement, a "dangerous wave of discriminatory new legislation" that allegedly do not respect the "inherent dignity of LGBTQ+ people" have been enacted into laws in various states across the country, one of which is HB 110. The statement called the bill "troublesome" for denying important services like social work, physician services, psychological and psychiatric services, counseling, and surgery.
California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus Chair Evan Low agreed with Bonta's decision and similarly criticized HB 110. Low called the bill an "attack" to the LGBTQ community in Ohio. He stressed that nothing of such sort will happen in California.
"Ohio's decision to condone attacks on the health of its nearly 400,000 LGBTQ+ residents was widely opposed by the state's medical community. It's plain that this law only serves to discriminate. We will never put Californians at risk of falling victim to the same toxic standard by supporting the use of taxpayer dollars for travel in places where anti-LGBTQ discrimination is the law of the land," Low said.
Similar to Ohio, California has banned tax-funded state travel to Arkansas, Florida, Montana, North Dakota, and West Virginia last June for passing bills against transgender women being able to join sports teams for girls and women.
