COLUMBUS, Ohio — In an attack ad against U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, a woman accuses the Democrat of pushing transgender surgeries on minors "like her." As it turns out, she isn't from Ohio and didn't have surgery until she was an adult.
The Senate Leadership Fund, one of the main groups supporting Republicans, has created multiple ads about former Sen. Sherrod Brown. In them, the political action committee accuses him of "forcing childhood sex change surgery."
Two of their most recent ads feature a woman and social media influencer Soren Aldaco.
“Sherrod Brown supports sex changes for minors, irreversible surgery on kids like me,” Aldaco says.
Another ad featuring Aldaco explains that she was misled.
“After a 20-minute meeting, doctors told my parents I was transgender," she states. "That led to hormone shots, a botched double mastectomy, and years of trauma."
Aldaco starts another ad by saying that at 11, she was groomed online, but at 15 she was told she was transgender.
"Surgery without my parents' consent," Aldaco said. "I was a kid.”
Well, as it turns out, Aldaco received surgery without parental consent because she was 19. Records show she lived and received her treatments in Texas, not Ohio.
Detailed in a public Texas Supreme Court battle, her attorneys share that she had her double mastectomy once she was an adult.
Columbus-area Democrat and OB-GYN Dr. Anita Somani explained it is illegal in Ohio to perform gender-affirming care procedures on minors.
"Under 18, there is not a single surgery that's been done here in the state, so I think the ads are misleading," Somani said. "They are lies."
The attack ad stems from when Brown said in 2023 that he believes medical decisions should be made between families and their doctors, not politicians.
Brown has a new ad up addressing it.
“Here they go again, those same attacks against Sherrod Brown. With everything going on, that's what they're talking about. In Ohio, it's against the law to perform transgender surgeries on kids. That's right, it's illegal," multiple individuals in the ad say.
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When Ohio was debating its law to get rid of transgender medical procedures for minors, Somani noted that the detransitioners, like Aldaco, were from out-of-state.
"To say that you had surgery or you were forced into surgery as a minor is clearly inaccurate... Did not live in Ohio, had no connections to Ohio," the lawmaker said.
Republican strategist Bob Clegg said it doesn’t matter where Aldaco lives.
"That person is talking about how she should have never been allowed to have that kind of medical intervention," Clegg said. "She doesn't like the fact that there are politicians out there that think that that's perfectly okay to do so."
I pointed out that Aldaco was a legal adult when she got surgery.
"How many mature 19-year-olds have you met?" he asked me.
The GOP-controlled state supreme court is reviewing the gender-affirming care ban, Clegg said, so it isn’t completely settled law. This is why voters need to know that Brown doesn’t support the law, he added.
"We're only under a temporary prohibition," he said.
Somani said it's telling that Republicans are focusing on culture war topics instead of affordability concerns.
"It's a way to create an issue that's a non-issue," she added.
If you have seen a campaign ad that you want me to fact-check, email or message me on any social media platforms.
Our political team continues to get requests to fact-check ads. Here are some of the latest stories:
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Follow Statehouse and Columbus bureau reporter Morgan Trau on X, Instagram and Facebook. Email her at Morgan.Trau@wews.com.
