(NewsNation) — The Biden administration’s move to make broad transgender sports bans illegal has stirred significant controversy and resistance from several states.

Currently, 21 states have implemented transgender sports bans, which prohibit transgender girls from participating in girls’ high school sports.

However, the Biden administration aims to change this by proposing amendments to Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs receiving federal funding.

These proposed changes would include protections for transgender individuals and make it illegal for schools to ban trans students from sports teams that align with their gender identity.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson joined 16 other states in a coalition to fight the Biden administration’s proposed changes to Title IX. 

“The states have very different position,” Wilson said. “We believe that the purpose behind Title IX was to prohibit institutions of higher learning, secondary middle schools, high schools, from discriminating against people on the basis of sex. And that was indeed to protect women.”

Wilson argued that prioritizing transgender inclusion in sports could compromise the safety and well-being of cisgender women and girls.

“This proposed rule would violate the law and it also violates common sense,” Wilson said in a release. “Title IX protects students, but this rule would harm students by eliminating single-sex bathrooms and locker rooms, deny equal access to sports for women and girls, and jeopardize their safety. Title IX was designed to protect women from discrimination, not used as a tool for novel social policy. The rule of law requires that Title IX be interpreted according to the intent for which Congress enacted it.”

While some critics dismiss the coalition of opposition as mere expressions of disagreement, others believe they hold significance.

The administration, in response, has the power to withhold federal education funding from states that do not comply with Title IX regulations.

“We’re obviously not going to encourage the school to not accept federal financial aid, if they actually need it, we’re not going to encourage them to violate a federal regulation that would deny them access to those funds,” Wilson said. “What we’re saying is we’re going to fight in the court of law, to have the court interpret the law to mean what it was actually written.”

Title IX was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on June 23, 1972.

“Our goal is to try to protect the schools from being retaliated against by the federal government for following the law,” Wilson said. “And the true meaning behind the words in that law.”