US bishops respond to Senate’s failure to advance protections for female athletes

Two committee chairmen for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) criticized the U.S. Senate March 6 for blocking the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025,” which would have ensured that women and girls in federally funded sports programs would not have to compete against male athletes. 

Bishop Robert Barron, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, and Bishop David M. O’Connell, chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education, issued a joint statement, published on the USCCB’s website.

“The teaching of the Catholic Church calls us to advocate for the equal dignity of men and women, recognizing that God created us male and female. This legislation would ensure a level playing field for women and girls to compete in fairness and safety with other females,” they wrote. “An ideological promotion of personal identity, detached from biological reality, undermines human dignity and the role sports play in true educational formation.”

Fox News reported that on March 3 the legislation failed to reach a 60-vote threshold to advance, with a 51-45 vote along party lines. All Democrat senators who were present voted against proceeding. 

The bill, introduced by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and cosponsored by more than 40 other senators, would have codified Trump’s executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” into federal law. 

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