Many critics have insisted this policy does not go far enough or establish clear enough barriers to protect women's athletes in the college ranks. The most common criticism has been that the policy allegedly allows trans athletes to bypass the restriction by changing the gender on their birth certificate.
In the U.S., 44 states do allow birth certificates to be altered to change a person's birth sex. The only states that do not allow this are Florida, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Montana. Meanwhile, there are 14 states that allow sex on a birth certificate to be changed without any medical documentation required, including California, New York, Massachusetts and Michigan.
"It offers no protection for women, doesn't follow federal law, and removes all NCAA accountability. It explicitly allows men on women's teams and defines levels of participation based on changeable birth certificates," Independent Council for Women's Sports co-founder Kim Jones told Fox News Digital of the NCAA's new policy.
"There is nothing in this policy keeping men out of women's sports. Go back and start again. Women need a policy that defines women's sports exclusively for women and upholds screening with NCAA accountability."
Former U.S. gymnast and founder of XX-XY Athletics Jennifer Sey echoed the concerns over changeable birth certificates.
