The draft legislation known as the “What is a Woman” Act defines who is a female or male individual and the terms father and mother.

Alabama lawmakers advanced legislation on 24 May that seeks to define an individual’s sex based on their reproductive systems under state law.

HB405, known as the “What is a Woman” Act , was introduced by Republican state representative Susan DuBose. The House Health Committee voted along party lines to approve the bill, which now heads to the House floor for a vote, writes the Zero Hedge news portal.

Under the legislation, a “female” is defined as an individual whose biological reproductive system is designed to produce ova, and a “male” is defined as an individual whose biological reproductive system is designed to fertilize the ova of a female.

The legislation also states that

the term “mother” is defined as a parent that is of the female sex under state law, while the term “father” is defined as a parent that is of the male sex.

“When it comes to sex, ‘equal’ does not mean ‘same’ or ‘identical,’” the legislation states. “When it comes to sex, ‘separate’ is not inherently unequal,” the legislation says.

The legislation includes an exception in the case of individuals who are born with a medically verifiable diagnosis of a “disorder or difference in sex development,” and such individuals will be provided legal protections and accommodations afforded under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the measure.

The bill protects women, lawmakers say.

“Notwithstanding any state law to the contrary, there are legitimate reasons 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 where biology, safety, or privacy are implicated,” the measure states.

The measure would also require any state department, school district, or public school to include an individual’s biological sex in all reporting of health, crime, economic, or other data.

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

Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey, Alabama state director of 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, AP News reports.

Susan DuBose argued that

the bill is needed to prevent violence from occurring in “women’s spaces”.

Such incidents are occurring in places “throughout our nation” that are open to transgender women, who are biological males, she said.

The Republican lawmaker stressed that the bill “is in no way trying to deny their existence, or their rights or their relevance or their importance,” referring to transgender women, adding that she believes the legislation will “affect a few women that are in these very specific situations,” and not the majority of people.

As V4NA has reported repeatedly, in the recent past, biologically male prisoners who identify as women were placed in women’s prisons, leading to a serious problems.

Earlier, an inmate in a Washington prison revealed she witnessed a case when some transgender inmates – all born as men, i.e. biological males – had sexually assaulted female prisoners. The men were transferred to women’s prisons after they had identified as transgender. In one such incident, a sleeping female prisoner had a rough awakening, as a man was trying to rape her. The incident was reported to prison staff, who did not mete out any punishment to the transgender convict, fearing that they would be accused of homophobia. In the end, prison authorities decided to dismiss the allegations and, instead of the attacker, they punished the victim, placing her in solitary confinement.

In one case, a biological male who identifies as a transgender person impregnated two female inmates.

A study published in early March found that nine out of ten men who identify as women in Canadian prisons are violent offenders and nearly half of them have been convicted of a sex crime. In Australia, female inmates launched a petition, in which they demanded that the authorities remove transgender inmates from women’s prisons and place male inmates elsewhere. Inmates and advocates began campaigning for change after a transgender person previously convicted for violence against women had been sent to women’s prison.