California Bans State-Paid Travel To Ohio Over Opposition To New Anti-LGBTQ Law

Updated: 4:46 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021

California is restricting state-funded travel to Ohio starting Thursday because of a new Ohio law that allows doctors to deny medical care based on personal beliefs.

The state budget includes a “medical conscience” clause allowing health care workers to deny treatments they feel violate their beliefs. 

“People are not going to be discriminated against in regard to medical care,” Gov. Mike DeWine said after he signed the budget bill. “We have a vibrant medical care system in the state of Ohio,” DeWine said.

But advocates for Ohio's LGBTQ community strongly disagree. And the state of California is now joining them, making Ohio the 18th state to which California will no longer allow state-funded travel.

The new clause has had a “cascading effect” on travel and tourism in Cleveland since it was passed this summer, according to Destination Cleveland CEO David Gilbert. In a statement emailed to Ideastream Public Media, Gilbert said it creates an image of Ohio as unwelcoming and discriminatory, and it harms efforts to bring people in.

California’s ban on state-paid travel will worsen the negative financial impact of the clause, Gilbert said.

“[The ban] threatens Destination Cleveland’s ability to attract the numerous national association-sponsored meetings, conventions and events whose attendees include employees of state agencies, departments, boards, or commissions,” Gilbert said. “When event attendees are financially prohibited from visiting a state, meeting planners will bypass Cleveland as an event host.”

The tourism and travel industry was already challenged by the coronavirus pandemic, Gilbert said, and the impact of the clause will make it more difficult to recover.

The “medical conscience” provision was slipped into the two-year state budget. At the time, some medical associations came out against it, but DeWine insisted it only codified a policy that was already in wide usage, allowing doctors to avoid doing something they philosophically oppose by delegating care to another physician. Unlike most legislation, lawmakers did not hold hearings on the provision so doctors who may have shown up to testify against it didn't get the opportunity.

In recent months, Ohio has been spending millions, advertising widely to young entrepreneurs in the Golden State and others to try lure new residents. It’s unclear what effect, if any, this new law will have on that effort.

Meanwhile, the Center for Christian Virtue in Ohio issued a press release  praising California's reaction to the bill. CCV President Aaron Baer accused California Attorney General Rob Bonta of "lying" and "fear-mongering."

"No matter the reason," Baer said, "I think most Ohioans would agree it’s a net gain for our state for California bureaucrats to stay put. And the less of their radical progressive ideology that comes into our state, the better!"

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