Just one day after the president signed an executive order restricting transgender girls and women from participating in women's sports.

The NCAA updated its policy limiting competition in women's sports to quote student athletes assigned female at birth only.

Adding a student athlete assigned male at birth may not compete for an NCAA women's team, but it does allow for athletes to participate in men's sports competitions regardless of their sex assigned at birth.

The executive order threatens to withhold federal funding from any schools that don't comply.

NJ Spotlight News reached out to a handful of New Jersey's colleges and universities that compete at the NCAA level to see how they're handling the change.

Only Rutgers responded, saying they follow NCAA rules and guidelines, and they're monitoring the executive orders.

Meanwhile, new Jersey set itself up as a haven for transgender rights through its own series of executive orders.

But advocates say given the amount and extent of federal action looking to roll those back, the state should do more to protect them.

Ted Goldberg reports on the state of the affairs for my patients and beyond is absolute panic.

Doctor Jonathan Keith says gender affirming care is literally a life or death issue, and that when transgender people couldn't schedule surgery during Covid, the consequences were dire.

The family picked up and said that the patient was in critical care in the ICU.

After attempting suicide.

Another phone call I got during that time period was from the East Orange Police Department asking to my medical records to identify a body they found, which was my patient.

Recent executive orders from the Trump administration attempt to ban gender affirming care for anyone 18 or younger.

I've had my surgery and I've had and I've been on hormones.

Having that taken away from me would be stripping me of my autonomy and taking away a lot of the things that have given me affirmation and joy in my life.

Sam Halifax is a 21 year old college student and a trans man who's taken testosterone for about a year now, thanks to another executive order that says people can't change their birth sex.

He's run into roadblocks while trying to switch over his legal documents and birth certificate.

But he's happy he could get his surgery so his body would match his gender identity.

I have been, more social and more communicative and more open and more just loving in my life because I found the ability to love myself and my presentation.

Health care for trans people was one of the issues at this week's Republican debate for the governor's race.

I don't care what you do when you're an adult 18.

That's fine.

I don't care, but when you're a minor, that is abuse to a child, in my opinion.

First of all, there is a huge difference between sexual orientation, sexual preferences and mental illness.

So number one, we have to end the transition of children.

Fellow candidates Jack Rowley and Jon Bramnick didn't agree with restricting access to care, but they were on the same page regarding banning transgender athletes from college sports.

There's not supposed to be any bias.

There's not supposed to be any harassment.

There's not supposed to be any prejudice or any discrimination.

And wherever I find it, I will call it out.

We must show we have a heart.

That doesn't mean that we should allow biological males to play in sports as women.

NCAA by its own admission, is only servicing ten transgender athletes.

For us, that really makes it very clear what the point here is.

And it appears that the point is the cruelty.

On the state level, Governor Phil Murphy had previously signed executive orders of his own, protecting access to gender affirming care.

And the health care providers who offer it will use the bully pulpit.

We've been effective at that.

We will use the legal levers, for sure.

What we're seeing right now under the Trump administration is an attack on a vulnerable community for their own political purposes.

Of course, the next governor could rescind those protections with executive orders of his or her own.

And there's no law in place to protect health care providers if that happens.

Senator Andrews Wicker has sponsored and co-sponsored bills that would protect in-state providers who offer gender affirming care or reproductive health care.

Obviously, the political climate over the last few weeks has continued to get worse and worse and worse.

And so the importance of this bill has only heightened.

The new Jersey Hospital Association President and CEO Kathy Bennett says new Jersey hospitals are dedicated to serving the health needs of all communities in the state, including the LGBTQ community.

We are reviewing the executive orders and its impact on the trans community.

We are evaluating the services we can provide while complying with the order.

The ACLU is suing over the executive orders.

So it might take a long court battle to decide what the future is for trans health care in New Jersey.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Ted Goldberg.