For years, the argument from abortion advocates has been that restricting abortion access will disproportionately harm women. But now, they can’t even bring themselves to say the word “women.”
A growing number of leftist abortion rights groups have been pushing Democrats and their allies in the media to use the term “pregnant people” or “people with a capacity for pregnancy” instead of “women” in order to be more inclusive. Apparently, limiting the subject of unexpected pregnancy to just women (who, by the way, are the only people capable of bringing children into the world) could be considered bigoted.
This new phrasing was on full display during a congressional hearing last week when Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) asked a Democratic witness why she kept using the phrase “people with a capacity for pregnancy.” The witness, University of California Berkeley Law School professor Khiara Bridges, responded by arguing the term is more accurate since “cisgender women,” “transgender men,” and other “nonbinary” persons can all become pregnant.
But if that’s the case, why is it that abortion continues to be framed as a women’s rights issue? If women aren’t the only ones with so-called rights on the line, if men and gender-fluid persons who also happen to have a uterus are also at risk, why should women be the only ones with a say in the matter?
The answer, of course, is that every person, male and female, should weigh in on abortion because abortion affects all of us — not because there are many different kinds of genders who might seek out abortive services, but because lethal violence against the unborn has a poisoning effect. It hurts unborn and born children and potential and existing parents alike.
The pro-abortion movement will never admit as much, but they have at least been forced into opening up the floor of debate to she/hers, he/hims, they/thems, xe/xers, etc. because anything less would be discriminatory. And in doing so, they’ve lost the one argument that made abortion an easy sell.
