Planned Parenthood and other groups have launched a coalition to oppose two ballot measures that would ban transgender surgeries among children and require student athletes to only join sports teams that correspond to their biological sex.

The two measures will appear in this year’s November ballot, setting the stage for a statewide debate over sports, gender identity and parental decision‑making.

Dubbed “Families Not Politics,” the coalition that includes Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, Interfaith Alliance and Inside Out Youth Services gathered at the state Capitol in Denver on Friday to urge voters to vote against initiatives 109 and 110.

“Colorado has been here before,” said Jack Teter of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. “Planned Parenthood knows what happens when politicians and the government use ballot measures to interfere in private decisions between families and our doctors.”

On its website, the coalition said it seeks to “defend the freedoms, privacy, and rights of all Coloradans.”

Initiative 110 prohibits health care professionals from prescribing, administering, or providing surgery to a child “for the purpose of altering biological sex characteristics.” Additionally, it would bar the use of federal funds, Med

Initiative No. 109 restricts participation in K-12 and collegiate school sports based on a student’s biological sex and requires schools and athletic associations to designate teams and sports as girls, boys or coed. It creates an exception, allowing a female student to participate on a male team if there is no female team available.

Additionally, the measure prohibits a government entity or athletic association from investigating a school over maintaining separate sports for females.

Both initiatives qualified for the November ballot earlier this month.

Initiatives 109 and 110, along with a measure to increase penalties for human trafficking of minors, are backed by Protect Kids Colorado, which describes itself as “a coalition of parents, grandparents and concerned citizens coming together to protect kids and strengthen families in Colorado.”

“Bigger, stronger biological males are invading girls’ sports in Colorado, taking away our girls’ dignity, safety, and opportunity,” the organization said on its website. “Our ballot measure ensures girls’ sports are protected, requiring sports leagues and teams be specifically designated male, female, or co-ed.”

Gender surgery robs a child of a “reproductive future,” the website added. “For something this serious and permanent, let’s wait until age 18.”

It is unknown how many transgender athletes are in Colorado.

Recently, the U.S. Department of Education announced that the Jeffco Public Schools district violated Title IX by permitting male students to access female bathrooms and compete in girls sports. The department’s Office for Civil Rights claimed that male students occupy 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams in the school district.

Meanwhile, several Colorado hospitals said last year they would halt transgender services, some of which cited the risk of losing federal dollars for its decision, after the Trump administration issued an order that mandates agencies to “defund chemical and surgical mutilation.”

In Colorado, many of the hospitals distinguished between providing gender surgeries and offering hormonal or chemical treatments.

Last January, Children’s Colorado announced it has paused gender services — in particular, puberty blockers and hormone-based treatment — for children, saying it would wait for “federal court rulings and assess the rapidly evolving legal landscape.” The hospital earlier said it never offered transgender surgeries to minors.

Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, said the initiatives are “vague, poorly written, and leave critical questions unanswered,” such as how schools would determine a student athlete’s gender.

“Who decides who gets questioned, who gets inspected, and which kids are going to be singled out?” Bridges said. “I can only imagine. When laws are written this vaguely, they open the door to unintended consequences that can cause serious harm to all of our kids.”

The fight over transgender athletes’ participation is occurring against the backdrop of a major change in how the federal administration regards the issue following Trump’s election. One of the president’s first executive orders was to declare that the policy of the federal government is to recognize only two sexes — male and female.

The White House also ordered all agencies to ensure “grant funds do not promote gender ideology,” arguing that the “erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system.”