The NCAA has barred transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports, in response to an executive order issued Wednesday by President Donald Trump.

Under the updated policy, participating in women’s sports is now limited to those who were assigned female gender at birth — effective immediately. Men’s sports remain open to women, assigned at birth or transgender.

“The NCAA is an organization made up of 1,100 colleges and universities in all 50 states that collectively enroll more than 530,000 student-athletes. We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said. “To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.”

The issue of transgender participation has been a controversial one in recent years at both the college and high school level. Last fall, several Mountain West Conference teams forfeited women’s volleyball matches vs. San Jose State, which was believed to have a transgender athlete on its team. (San Jose State volleyball player Brooke Slusser, who played at Alabama in 2021 and 2022, was a plaintiff in a lawsuit brought last year against the NCAA by Independent Council on Women’s Sports.)

Under the updated policy, transgender athletes may practice with women’s teams and receive benefits such as medical care. Sports with mixed men’s and women’s participation (such as rifle) are exempt from the policy.

Trump’s executive order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” gives federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration’s view, which interprets “sex” as the gender someone was assigned at birth.

“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said at a signing ceremony in the East Room that included lawmakers and female athletes who have come out in support of a ban, including former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.