A bill introduced in the Minnesota House would allow only females assigned at birth to participate in elementary and secondary school sports teams designated for women or girls.

The measure, introduced by Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover, drew more than than two dozen people testifying both for and against it at the House Education Policy Committee meeting Wednesday. They included lawyers, doctors, parents, coaches and student athletes. Testimony spilled into the evening hours.

A female is defined in the bill by their reproductive system.

In a letter opposing the bill, Dr. A. Kade Goepferd, a pediatrician and chief education officer at Children’s Minnesota, a hospital in Minneapolis, and Kyja Foster, a clinical psychologist, said they were fearful of “immediate and long term consequences for the physical and mental health and well-being of transgender athletes in Minnesota.”

They were also concerned about young athletes who might be “flagged” for further evaluation to “confirm” their sex assigned at birth, they wrote.

At a time when girls and young women involved in athletics have been victims of sexual assault and abused by coaches and athletic trainers, “we do not need reasons or excuses for adults to be examining or investigating the bodies of young athletes,” they said.

But Scott said “this bill is about the obvious thing in front of us: There’s a difference between male and female athletes. We’re trying to protect girls.”

Laurel Audette, a ninth-grade student from St. Paul, testified that the bill is necessary to protect “the fairness and safety of women’s sports. Female athletes across Minnesota work incredibly hard to succeed in their sport, and for biological males to be allowed to compete alongside women in the same events and possibly come out on top, taking women’s places, is completely unfair and ruins the enjoyment of sports for women.”