The Ohio Senate passed legislation on Wednesday that would protect children from transgender surgeries and ban males from competing in women’s sports, sending the bill to the desk of Republican Governor Mike DeWine.

Pope Francis was discharged from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital to a round of applause on Friday after an eight-day stay following abdominal surgery.

He greeted hospital staff and other patients as he left the hospital in a wheelchair June 16. Outside the building, the pope was asked how he was doing by media, to whom he said, “I’m still alive!”

After Francis left in his white Fiat 500, surgeon Dr. Sergio Alfieri told reporters, “The pope is well. He’s better than before,” according to the Associated Press.

Pope Francis is “steadily improving” two days after he underwent abdominal surgery to correct an incisional hernia, a Vatican spokesman said Friday.

According to Matteo Bruni, the pope rested during the night and on the morning of June 9 was able to eat breakfast and move from his hospital bed to an armchair.

“The medical team reports that the clinical picture is steadily improving and the postoperative progress is normal,” he said in a brief statement released shortly before 1 p.m. Rome time.