Title IX, enacted in 1972, forbids sex discrimination in schools, and the Biden administration has published proposed changes to Title IX regulations.

“The rule’s provisions on discrimination based on ‘pregnancy or related conditions,’ which include ‘termination of pregnancy,’ are intended to have implications for abortion, and therefore, life in the womb,” said three bishops who chair committees of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. “And by adding self-asserted ‘gender identity’ to the prohibition against sex discrimination, the rule may foreshadow a threat to women’s athletics, sex-separate spaces, and the right of students, parents, and teachers to speak the truth about the nature of the human person.”

“It is a sad irony that these rules could effectively erase women and girls from the very law meant to serve them,” the bishops added.