'Pregnant people'

Well said. The incessant whining that women's identities must be erased in order to pander to the miniscule % of mentally vulnerable women who deny their sex is so tedious. The fact that the NHS has spent so many ££ & staff hours intent on erasing the word woman is shameful. Hopefully they're creeping back to reality and sanity after so much push back.

Transwomen should be nowhere near maternity care or policy - unless of course they're doing that manly thing of getting a woman pregnant and becoming a father. They have a clear role there - but that is all.

The NHS has an appalling record of harming women and babies via dangerous maternity care - resolving that should be their only priority.

I agree - trust is so important and it's vital that women have the right to say no to men doing intimate examinations on them (regardless of what those men wear), that those rights will be upheld by the NHS and men will respect those women's choices.

Actually, trans women are included in all prostate cancer health messaging. The charity Prostate Cancer UK gives them advice and welcomes them. Anyone with a prostate must feel able to access screening services.

Trans men and nb parents exist, and need to be encouraged to trust their healthcare providers. Lots of them avoid care because of fear of encountering hostility.

Gynae care especially. If you aren't sure you can trust someone who will examine you so intimately, then you will be put off from attending.

So many of us have had really bad experiences especially with smears, womb exams and other intimate procedures - so I hope you'll understand the fear trans men feel when considering such procedures.

That includes pregnancy care.

Inclusive language tells trans men and nb people that they will be respected, cared for and safe. It addresses a reality - that more trans and nb people are out now, and require care.

Erases no one, and ensures the safety and dignity of all.

Trans men aren't women. Nor are nb people. Addressing them the way the rest of the world does is basic respect.

Inclusive language is also critical for trans women. There is so much hostility to them, and they suffer medical misogyny as well - can you imagine how difficult it must be for them to trust doctors with prostate care? Inclusive language reassures them. It's necessary to save lives.

Not calling women, women because of transman or non-binary identifying women is just mental gymnastics. For one thing, one issue here is the conflation of sex, and gender as an identity. Language in this arena has become so corrupted that it's hard to even talk about it with sense.

A woman identifying as a man, as a transman or non-binary is their gender. This gets conflated with sex not only in discussions about it, but also in the fact that they want to be treated like the opposite sex and even the government will recognize this in many places allowing these people to change their sex markers on official documents to a gender.

But it's still a gender. That's what they identify as. It's a belief, and one they can identify as on a whim with no conditions. Their sex is still woman/female.

Would a pregnant 15-year-old agree with you? There are plenty of very young mothers, unfortunately.

So is "pregnant mammals".

If you can get pregnant you are a woman - an adult human female - however you choose to identify. Why women as a sex class should be erased because of a tiny minority who might not identify with the word woman is beyond me.

Anyone who can get pregnant IS a woman or girl - a female human being. Inner identity is secondary.

"Pregnant people" sets my teeth on edge every time I hear it, and never ever would I say or write it myself. Likewise with cervix havers or menstruators. How can anyone bring themselves to repeat such nonsense?

The only reason transmen, females who call themselves nonbinary, etc. can get pregnant is because they're women.

Do girls get pregnant? Do we tend to talk about "pregnant girls"? I'm pretty sure the pregnant people referred to are women and not little girls.

It drives me mad too @StickySundew and this - together with terms like cervix havers or menstruators - effectively excludes non-native speakers and women with learning difficulties from really important health messaging. Inclusion anyone?

Thank you for explaining it! Did PALS listen to you?

No. This is just the excuse put forth. The REAL reason is that butthurt men playing dress up as women don't like to be reminded that only women can get pregnant. And we mustn't upset them.
No one cares about "transmen" or female NBs because they're women.

I think unmothering means like we are having our motherhood taken away from us, we’re just a “person” now. Not a woman or a mother. That’s 100% what it felt like after reading these words. A lot was in my PALS complaint after my pregnancy, and this was one of them.

It's funny how people accept the so inclusive" to remove the language of one sex class. As someone pointed out earlier, if this had been happening to men there'd have been a mutiny from the outset.

Instead we have countless useful idiots proclaiming that of course we shouldn't talk about women and mothers in relation to pregnancy, breastfeeding, the menopause etc and openly denying known facts and science with no hesitation.

It's so obvious that these people never think about the lies and nonsense they're uttering. They're so caught up in the need to pander to this self identified group of vulnerable bullies that their complicity in excluding women from society in this way completely passes them by.

@MrsOvertonsWindow power grab is spot on.

It's amazing how the language of women has is been rolled back isn't it? Even by women.

We need to remember that this whole "inclusivity" lie started because the men who wanted to appropriate women's identities, language, sport & single sex spaces decided that they were being excluded by society's evolved understanding of women's rights.
Before trans extremism, nobody was wibbling about the words women, mother, uterus, menopause, pregnancy etc being bigoted. Any man demanding to play in women's sport as a woman would have been ridiculed and if trying to access changing rooms and showers with women would have been arrested.

Hence the need to intimidate, threaten and bully in order to silence women and decent men (TWAW #nodebate etc) It's been a masterclass in male power and bullying. It was never innocent and never about inclusivity.

It was a naked power grab, misogyny on steroids, from the outset.

this is the most important aspect to me. I am in the US and the conversation after Dobbs that included "pregnant people" really bothered me. It removed the fact that this issue was about women and women's health and needed to be seen in this light.

I used to do that, but I don't any more, because as I have aged and gained experience so has my understanding of Feminism, and I realise things like saying Pregant People because hey, half of people are women so why do we need to separate ourselves? that should be fair may not work like that in a society that isn't fair to start with.

For me, society's tendency to "default to male" makes women and women's different needs and perspectives become invisible if we aren't advocating for ourselves and making sure we are visible.

@peetieswie Why would someone who “identifies” as male want to do such a womanly thing? If you believe you are male, why would you want to get pregnant and give birth?

The other important thing to realise about de-sexed language like "pregnant person" is not just the woman dissppears from view but that the sexed nature of pregnancy itself disappears from view. It becomes something that's only relevant to the "person" it is happening to while it's happening, after which they go back to being a "person" again.

But the fact that only female people can get pregnant is significant to women not just when we are pregnant. It has affected how society has treated us and thought about us pretty much since we have had society, and that has knocked on effects for every woman even if she herself is never actually a "pregnant person".

Yes, we know some women have such sexist ideas about other women that they literally cannot bear to be called "women" so demand to be called "men" or "non-binary" or other labels to make it clear they are not whatever this thing they believe all other women except them are.

However, we really shouldn't be treating that like it's a reasonable thing to say about other women.

Women are just adult female humans. The roughly half of the adult human population that is female in all our diversity.

We aren't a personality trait so it's incredibly offsensive and misogynist to claim we are, and it's deeply demeaning to women for any organisation to support that view of us.