Earlier this month, Governor Mike Parson (R) signed Senate Bill 39 into law, prohibiting male athletes from playing on girls' and women's sports teams in all public, private, and charter grade schools, as well as in private colleges and universities.
"Women and girls deserve and have fought for an equal opportunity to succeed, and with this legislation today, we stand up to the nonsense and stand with them as they take back their sport competitions," Parson said in a statement.
Meridian Baldacci of the Family Policy Alliance does not expect a positive response from the president.
"The Biden administration is currently trying to push a rule that would actually punish those states that are trying to just protect female athletes," she notes. "We will be seeing … more of that."
Gov. Parson also signed the Missouri Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act (Senate Bill 49), which bans gender manipulation on minors and bars MO HealthNet and Missouri's Medicaid program from covering so-called "gender-affirming care" for adults. It also prevents incarcerated Missourians from receiving gender-mutilation surgeries.
In response to that, Baldacci says opponents are "encouraging people that they now are not going to be able to get these transgender procedures in Missouri, but they can just cross over to Illinois, and Planned Parenthood would be happy to treat them there."
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Missouri has reportedly vowed to explore "all options" to fight these bans.
