Alabama advances ‘What is a Woman Act’ in state Legislature

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• Alabama’s House Health Committee has advanced a proposal that would define males and females based on their reproductive systems under state law.
• The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Susan Dubose, said that the Alabama measure would protect "women’s spaces" such as dorm rooms.
• Several Republican-controlled states have introduced bills similar to Alabama’s "What is a Woman Act."

Alabama lawmakers on Wednesday advanced legislation that would define who is recognized as female and male under state law.

The House Health Committee voted along party lines to approve the "What is a Woman Act" and send the legislation to the full House of Representatives. The bill is similar to measures introduced in several GOP-controlled states and would base the definitions off a person's reproductive systems.

Republican Rep. Susan Dubose, the bill's sponsor, argued the definitions are needed to protect "women's spaces" such as dorm rooms. She said the words male and female appear frequently in law without being defined.

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Flags drift in the wind on top of the Alabama State Capitol dome in Montgomery on July 6, 2018. Alabama's "What is a Woman Act" passed a state committee Wednesday. It will now go to the full House. (Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)

"Activists have sought to redefine these words and separate sex from biology," Dubose said when she introduced the bill last week.

The bill defines a female and woman as an "individual whose biological reproductive system is designed to produce ova" and a male and man as an "individual whose biological reproductive system is designed to fertilize the ova of a female." The bill states that it is important to "distinguish between the sexes with respect to athletics, prisons or other detention facilities, domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, locker rooms, bathrooms" and other areas.

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The bill drew heavy opposition during a public hearing last week where several transgender women called the bill an attack on their assistance.

Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey, Alabama state director Human Rights Campaign, in a statement Wednesday called the bill the "LGBTQ+ Erasure Act" that "aims to strip away dozens of legal protections and rights for LGBTQ+ Alabamians."

"LGBTQ+ people have spent decades fighting to be equal members of society, but this bill is a slap in the face to all of the progress we’ve made," said Anderson-Harvey, who is also a trans woman.