The fate of Roe v. Wade has renewed interest in the abortion debate, with advocates screeching about “reproductive rights.” But the leftist pro-abortionists are leaving out one important word when talking about the fate of the unborn: women.
That’s a take from a reporter for the New York Times, who admits two things not readily expected from employees of the left-wing media outlet: women exist and they are unique in their ability to get pregnant and give birth.
Michael Powell called out another left-wing group, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which wrote about abortion without using the word “women.”
“Abortion bans disproportionately harm: Black Indigenous and other people of color. The L.G.B.T.Q. community. Immigrants. Young people. Those working to make ends meet. People with disabilities. Protecting abortion access is an urgent matter of racial and economic justice,” the ACLU wrote.
The column said, in part, that the ACLU’s language is not an “oversight” but part of an effort to change language to advance an agenda.
Now, he argues, the terms “pregnant people” and “birthing people” have replaced the term “pregnant women.”
The column cited Dr. Sara Dahlen, who wrote an editorial for a British medical journal complaining about clinicians being pressured to change their vocabulary to use, for example, “human milk” instead of “breast milk.”
“If the aim is to maximize respect for every person’s sense of self, it must follow that female patients who simply understand themselves as women cannot either be expected to ‘go along silently with language in which they do not exist,’” Dahlen wrote in her commentary.
The columnist gave some examples of what is driving this linguistic effort:
Last year, the editor of The Lancet, a British medical journal, apologized for a cover that referred to “bodies with vaginas” rather than women.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a section on “Care for Breastfeeding People,” the governor of New York issued guidance on partners accompanying “birthing people” during Covid, and city and some state health departments offer “people who are pregnant” advice on “chestfeeding.”
The Cleveland Clinic, a well-known nonprofit hospital, posed a question on its website: “Who has a vagina?” Its answer begins, “People who are assigned female at birth (AFAB) have vaginas.” The American Cancer Society website recommends cancer screenings for “people with a cervix.”
The Daily Mail named another one: a government-funded report urged the National Health Service to use the terms ‘chestfeeding’ and ‘frontal birth’ instead of “breast” or “vaginal”.
The column included the opinion of Professor Steven Greene of North Carolina State University, who studies feminism and said it is a mistake for a movement to “discard its base and core sexual identity.”
“Activists are adopting symbols and language that are off-putting not just to the right but to people in the center and even liberals,” Greene said, adding that even Democrat politicians would do well to use the word “women” to appeal to the majority of Americans.
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter