Rep. Cori Bush gave compelling testimony in front of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Thursday, telling the gripping story of giving birth to her son at 23 weeks’ gestation, then going into pre-term labor again just a few months later with her daughter. Unfortunately, her story highlighting the lack of care so many pregnant black women face was overshadowed by her use of leftist language, referring to black mothers as “black birthing persons.”
She tweeted, “Every day, Black birthing people and our babies die because our doctors don’t believe our pain.” Confusion and a battle over semantics ensued.
Pro-abortion group NARAL, ironically sharing a video about the survival of a 23-week-old baby at a gestation they work to keep eligible for abortion, chimed in on using “gender neutral language when talking about pregnancy” – the miracle of life that only occurs in one sex.
When we talk about birthing people, we're being inclusive. It's that simple.
We use gender neutral language when talking about pregnancy, because it's not just cis-gender women that can get pregnant and give birth. Reproductive freedom is for *every* body. https://t.co/9E9qKRMJTu
— Reproductive Freedom for All (@reproforall) May 6, 2021
Speech police claim it’s nothing more than using inclusive language, but language that eradicates the female experience altogether is hardly inclusive at all. It’s degrading, misogynist, and reduces the often life-threatening experience of labor and delivery that Bush’s testimony highlighted to a desolate, dystopian “Handmaid’s Tale”-esque process.
Bush demands better care for women, but how can we expect to improve women’s health care when we are focused on re-labeling women-specific anatomy as to not offend “transgender women” who have no female anatomy? We hear testimonies like Bush’s and demand to know how a pregnant woman’s concerns could go ignored, all while hospitals focus on initiatives like replacing “breastfeeding” with “chestfeeding” and “breast milk” with “human milk.”
“Birthing person” is not just an innocent word. Adhering to the left’s language means adhering to their doctrine. And we know that their doctrine does not just stop with false pronouns but will extend as far as eradicating the uniqueness of a mother’s experience.
Sadly, Bush and other leftists are undermining the humanity of mothers everywhere and distracting from the real solutions needed for the very women they claim to fight for.