Iowa has passed a bill to eliminate all references to "gender identity" from state law while defining sex as biologically determined at birth, a move supporers say is designed to protect "the rights of women and girls.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, signed SF418, a bill that eliminates “gender identity” as a protected class under the Iowa Civil Rights Act.

Iowa lawmakers became the first in the nation to approve legislation removing gender identity protections from the state’s civil