New Iowa law defines male and female, removes gender identity protections

Iowa has enacted a law defining “sex” as male or female, with “gender” as a synonym, while removing gender identity protections from its code, making that state the first to do so.

The move follows a Jan. 20 executive order from President Donald Trump for the federal government to recognize human biological sexuality as either male or female.

On Feb. 28, Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the bill into law, which is set to take effect on July 1.

The Iowa law defines “sex” as “the state of being either male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth.” The terms “woman” or “girl” refer to females and the terms “man” or “boy” refer to males.

“Female” is defined as “an individual who has, had, will have through the course of normal development, or would have but for a developmental anomaly, genetic anomaly, or accident, a reproductive system that at some point produces ova.”

Similarly, the law defines “male” as one whose reproductive system “at some point produces sperm.”

The law also defines “mother” as “a parent who is female” and “father” as “a parent who is male.”

In addition, the law states that “gender,” when used alone in reference to males and females or their natural differences, “shall be considered a synonym for sex and shall not be considered a synonym or shorthand expression for gender identity, experienced gender, gender expression or gender role.”

The law also requires the sex at birth to appear on birth certificates, allowing an extension of “no more than six months” for parents to obtain a diagnosis or testing if a medical determination of sex cannot be immediately determined at birth.

The law also strikes the term “gender identity” from the state’s civil rights code.

Under the law, school districts are prohibited from providing any program or curricula relating to “gender theory” or sexual orientation to students in kindergarten through grade six.

In a social media video, Reynolds noted that the law represented “a sensitive issue for some,” but said, “It’s common sense to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women.

“In fact, it’s necessary to secure genuine equal protection for women and girls,” said Reynolds. “It’s why we have men and women’s bathrooms, but not men and women’s conference rooms; girls’ and boys’ sports, but not girls’ math and boys’ math; separate men and women’s prisons, but not different laws for men and women.”

Reynolds said the law was necessary to uphold these distinctions because the state’s civil rights code since 2007 had previously “blurred the biological line between the sexes.” Reynolds said the civil rights code was being used to make the state pay for gender reassignment surgeries, which she said was “unacceptable” to her and most Iowans.

In March 2023, the U.S. bishops’ doctrine committee issued a 14-page statement declaring that surgical, chemical or other interventions that aim “to exchange” a person’s “sex characteristics” for those of the opposite sex “are not morally justified,” as they counter the “fundamental order and finality” of “the human person, body and soul, man or woman.”

The doctrine committee acknowledged that “many people are sincerely looking for ways to respond to real problems and real suffering,” but affirmed that “any technological intervention that does not accord with the fundamental order of the human person as a unity of body and soul, including the sexual difference inscribed in the body, ultimately does not help but, rather, harms the human person.”

LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in Iowa, such as One Iowa, protested the bill, arguing it would negatively affect people who identify as transgender or non-binary. Max Mowitz, One Iowa’s executive director, said Reynolds was on the “wrong side of history.”

“By signing this bill into law, she has made it legal to discriminate against transgender Iowans in nearly every aspect of life — where they live, where they work, and where they go to school,” Mowitz said in a statement Feb. 28. “This law sends a devastating message: that transgender Iowans are not worthy of the same rights, dignity, and protections as their neighbors.”

Reynolds argued the state law brings Iowa into line with the federal civil rights code, and is simply meant to strengthen protections for women and girls.

“We all agree that every Iowan without exception deserves respect and dignity,” she said. “We are all children of God and no law changes that.”

Peter Jesserer Smith, OSV News national news and features editor, contributed to this report.