Health Secretary Victoria Atkins: ‘The Labour Party is writing women out of our vocabulary’

[IwantToRetire]

What gets her most impassioned is the topic of women – and what she sees as attempts to eradicate their place in society.

Most recently, an NHS trust provoked fury after saying that <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/Bm1bq/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/18/trans-womens-milk-as-good-as-breast-milk-says-nhs-trust/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">breast milk produced by trans women who were assigned male at birth is as good for babies as that produced by a mother who has given birth.

Before that, the health service was found to be using the term “chestfeeding” in place of breastfeeding.

“I’m a mum – I find it extraordinary that a trust thought this was an appropriate use of their time,” she says, suggesting that such services would do better to concentrate on tackling long gynaecology waits.

“I’m very comfortable and clear that I am a woman and I would like my rights as a woman to be protected. And they will be protected by the Conservatives.”

She is most scathing of all about Labour’s approach to women, suggesting that a “Left-wing mindset” is creeping into the NHS.

“That is why we need to be making this robust case to refuse to wipe women out of the conversation,” she says.

Sir Keir Starmer <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/Bm1bq/www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/07/26/keir-starmer-woman-is-adult-female-labour-hardens-stance/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">famously struggled to define a woman, settling on the statement that 99.9 per cent of women do not have a penis, as the party became embroiled in trans rows.

Last year, then-health secretary Steve Barclay promised the return of “sex-specific” language to the NHS after references to women were expunged from its advice on the menopause and diseases such as cervical and ovarian cancer.

But many trusts have resisted the shift, routinely referring to “people who give birth” while some have referred to “birthing parents”. Atkins can barely contain her outrage.

“When I see reports of mothers as ‘people who give birth’! No – they are mums. I find it deeply concerning that there are parts of the Labour Party and the Left who seem to think that women can just be written out of our vocabulary.”

“Half the population are women. Of course the NHS should use the word ‘woman’,” she adds.

These paragraphs are just a small part of quite a long article in the Telegraph but thought they would be of interest https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/23/health-sec-victoria-atkins-interview-mothers-nhs-trans/

She also talks about women and prisons and abortion being decriminalised. Full article can be read at https://archive.ph/Bm1bq

@IwantToRetire Whether you like it or not during the time that the Tories have been in power like virtually every institution in this country had effectively been captured by Stonewall and others.

But the Conservatives have had very opportunity to stop Stonewall having so much influence. They were told over and over again, for almost a decade that Stonewall was toxic. They’ve only just begun to “care” about it.

One of the reasons I first fell out with the left (before I'd even heard about self ID) was their habit of calling people who vote differently to them 'stupid'.

The only 'tired old rhetoric' being used here is the Tory Party blaming Labour (a party that has not been in power since the 6th of May 2010) for things they couldn't be arsed to deal with themselves.
The trouble is that Tories (both MPs and voters) have ended up believing their own lies.

I certainly don’t think all people who vote differently from me are stupid. I do think unfortunately that some stupid people have fallen time after time for the lies of Johnson and his friends. I know people who still think he was a great PM and it was all a left wing conspiracy to get rid of him. They also think Brexit is a good idea, despite not being able to name a single advantages for this country. I’m not sure there is any other description for people like this other than stupid?

That just reads like a longer version of your first post.

And people who voted for Brexit are not a monolith - they did so for different reasons. If you find it so hard to disguise your contempt when you speak to them then I'm not surprised they don't want to discuss their reasoning with you.

Apologies for derail

Exactly. I’m not sure how people are still oblivious to the impact of poor legislation the GRA

What the fuck did they think would happen if males could legally be female?

Over time the whole of society shifts to gender not sex based and men get more enabled and in some cases violent and aggressive

The GRA underpins every single one of these threads

This is presumably the same Victoria Atkins who when Women's Minister was interviewed by the Telegraph in 2018.l? Glad she was so decisive then (when losing a general election wasn't on the cards).

Asked whether feminist campaigners were right to disagree with equal access for gender reassigned persons, Mrs Atkins highlighted that “the vast majority of us” were not extremely for or against transgender equality, but that a debate still needed to be had.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/27/much-better-place-tories-move-britain-forward/

If Labour had been in since the GRA until now we’d be even more fucked

There are very few governments fighting against this stuff

The law created this anyone not seeing that is blind to the cause

There are lots of things the Tories have done which I don’t agree with, but I don’t think it’s fair to entirely blame them for the TRA capture of various institutions.

Think about the context, the reputation of Stonewall as a positive force for the benefit of lesbians and gay men; publication of hugely flawed academic studies over that period; international pressures from eg the UN. Look at what has happened in countries with left-leaning governments during that time - Canada, Australia, even Scotland.

There is no doubt that the UK is in a much better position than it might have been. That is not necessarily because of much action by the Tories (other than the Isla Bryson debacle) but there certainly hasn’t been the political charge to wipe out women’s rights that there has been elsewhere. A few sports bodies have been brave enough to stand up (eg Rugby) and the UK government has supported that - look how the Welsh Assembly has kicked against it.

As OP says, this piece demonstrates that women like Victoria Atkins and Kemi Badenoch can make these statements from within government. Meanwhile Rosie Duffield’s treatment by Starmer and the rest of the Labour leadership remains disgraceful, and Ashley Dalton (shadow minister for women & equalities) is holding online meetings platforming (TW & campaigner) Steph Richards

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5012545-ashley-dalton-labour-shadow-minister-for-women-and-equalities-this-evening?page=2&reply=133224018

You cannot change the law so males are female and then moan a charity is enabling that to happen

If you don’t want organisations springing up and influencing public bodies don’t create the bloody law that allows it

IWFH - is it not acceptable for people to develop their ideas on this subject? Many posters here have said they initially supported ‘trans-rights’, until they understood more fully what that actually meant. The Dentons Report specifically recommended trying to bring in this ideology under the radar and under the cover of more popular legislation. It’s not surprising that most people did not see this coming.

Honestly these posts about X had been in power and did nothing.

How about all the years Labour was in power and didn't stop the sale of council housing and many other regressive Thatcher policies.

Its a mindless arguement.

Nearly every body including feminists either didn't know or understand about the GRA, and even those who had heard of it never thought it was the Trojan horse it has become.

That is what politics is about.

The alarm went off and the Government in power, that happened to be the Tories put the brakes of self ID.

It is just farcicla to go on and on and on and on saying they could have reversed this. But just like the Labour Paryt women's issues aren't a priority. Get some perspective.

And if some MPs whether male or female at least acknowedge that women are biological females it step forward.

This is as daft as the thread about Jess Phillips who is being criticised for knowing the importance for women to have women only services (and yes she does know what sex means) but is also prepared to use preferred pronouns. Compared to Starmer who wont say that women are biological females and will be the next PM who might oversee changes to the EA.

Surely even without knowing every weird aspect of Parliamentary procedure, we need to organise and challenge where the most risk is coming from.

(Have edited post as made a bit of a blunder with names. )

@donquixotedelamancha well said. Not to mention the appalling maternal death stats under the Tory administrations,particularly amongst black women. The Tories don't give a flying arsecheese about women . Labour do- a bit more in fact. Yes they are bloody annoying and I hate that they have forced me into a position where I have to overlook their pandering to the likes of Steph Richards so that less women won't die in childbirth, more children will go to bed with a full tummy , we have more decent housing for all but the evidence of previous Labour govts show we have a better chance of this than under the current shitshow.

I think it's clear by now that the Tories have no intention whatsoever of repealing the GRA and that any opposition they may have had to it back in the early-mid 2000s has long since withered away.

I‘m not sure how easy it is to repeal the GRA

Whenever a thread covers it on here it seems to be outside just U.K. law, eg ECHR

I’d love more insight from lawyers though on what could be done

Also agree with @IwantToRetire it’s a ridiculous argument

It’s clear we are here for ti the GRA and the people who brought it in

No one can be surprised that men have gradually become more aggressive and emboldened wrt a massive legal underpinning

Brava 👏

Adam, so presumably you read my post above (08.38) - what do you disagree with?

Thats the thing with the tories

the way they talk you’d think they only got into power last week

100% agree with you RufusthefactualReindeer

The thing with Labour supporters is they pretend the GRA isn’t the reason we’re in the mess we are

They also try to forget that Labour were responsible for it.

And that another Labour gov will defend their acts to the hilt and push for more

The GRA isn't the reason we are in the mess we are in. Only about 5000 people have a GRC, it's so few as to be barely relevant.

The Internet is the reason we are in the mess we are in. People thinking you can identify out of reality. Listen to "The Witch Trials of JK Rowling"

The second reason is the extremely coordinated actions of the TRAs, globally, to ensure "gender recognition" became a thing.

And the third is the Conservatives outsourcing as much as possible to charities rather than having it centralised, as part of Cameron's "big society" idea. That let a misinterpretation of the law be promulgated by charities across the public sector in a way that wouldn't have been possible if the public sector was still responsible for defining and delivering standard education and advice.

The history of how we came to be in this situation is complex and its not possible to pin the blame on governments of any persuasion.

Of course the GRA is the cause and foundation of where we are

If you give males a certificate to override biology and state legal female they will ask to be treated as female.

No one can actually check for a GRC so males can enter spaces. Does Eddie Izzard have one? Who knows

If you create a law which gives males legal status as female charities such as Stonewall will exist to make sure that’s what happens. They will expand into public bodies because the law is on their side, on what grounds should they not?

If you give a certificate and then say no males will become increasingly aggressive and threatening with added violence, not just the U.K. male violence in many countries where women say no.

It all goes back to the law. People are very Labour loyal and can’t see it but that’s not a surprise

Hmmm. If that's true then why are transgender issues being discussed across the world? Why is it a political issue for so many countries?

It's not like Australia is immune, what with Hannah Mouncey.

That explains why we are not immune either over the last decade

It’s not evidence that the GRA isn’t the cause of everything we’re seeing in the U.K.

Without it none of what is happening to women would be

Given how hard it is to repeal and how emboldened men are year on year it’s one of the worst laws we’ve ever created

The GRA isn't the "cause" of everythingwe are seeing in the UK. Its a reflection of a global move to recognise transgender people, it was the UK legislative response.

The GRA is also not the cause of men having access to womens spaces. Most prisoners don't have GRCs, yet the Conservatives were happy to start putting them in womens prisons.

In your rush to over simplify and play party politics you are overstating the impact of the GRA.