Trump’s Anti-Trans Executive Order Could Undermine Reproductive Freedoms

Amid the numerous executive orders signed by President Trump upon taking office, one in particular stands out for its alarming implications. Titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” this order mandates the government’s recognition of only two genders: male and female. Additionally, the order:

• Directs all federal agencies to replace the term “gender” with “sex” in official documents.
• Prohibits the use of federal funds to promote gender ideology.
• Ensures that government-issued identification, such as passports, reflects the biological sex assigned at birth.
• Requires the Attorney General to guide federal agencies in reversing any policies that permitted gender-identity-based access to single-sex spaces, such as bathrooms.
• Orders the EEOC, Department of Labor, and other agencies to “prioritize investigations and litigation to enforce the rights and freedoms identified” in the order.
• Rescinds various Biden-era guidance documents, including the 2024 EEOC workplace harassment guidance, which incorporated the agency’s analysis of Title VII protections for LGBTQ+ workers based on the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County.

This represents a significant legal and social setback for the rights of transgender and intersex individuals. Human rights advocates are particularly concerned about the peculiar wording of the order, which states that “a person belongs, at conception, to the sex that produces” either large or small gametes (reproductive cells). The use of “conception,” a term often associated with religious contexts, instead of “fertilization,” a medical term, could potentially pave the way for further fetal personhood laws. Such ambiguous and biased language likely serves to advance the Trump administration’s agenda of curtailing reproductive health rights.

Fetal personhood is the concept that a fetus, or in some cases an embryo, possesses the same rights as a person already born, including the right to life. Consequently, abortion is considered an act of violence and murder under this principle. Currently, 17 states recognize fetal personhood in their criminal and/or civil laws. The ACLU has warns, “This is just the first of many alarm bells that should be sounding about this administration’s response to the demands of extreme anti-abortion groups to strip women and individuals who can become pregnant of their personhood and their ability to make decisions about their bodies and lives.”