British Medical Association: Docs Shouldn’t Say ‘Expectant Mothers’ to Avoid Offending Transgenders
Well, it was just a matter of time.
It appears that mothers, as in the word “mother,” is on the fast track to joining the steadily-growing collection of terms that can no longer be uttered out of deference to political correctness.
Think that’s hogwash? Check this out.
According to The Telegraph, the British Medical Association (BMA), the professional association and trade union for physicians in the United Kingdom, recently said in a memo to its members that the term “expectant mothers” should be replaced by “pregnant people,” so as not to offend those who are members of the transgender community.
The BMA is insisting, however, that this suggested change is merely that, a suggestion, and that it would not presume to tell its physician-members how to conduct themselves with patients.
The internal memo excerpted by The Telegraph reads, in part, “Gender inequality is reflected in traditional ideas about the roles of women and men. Though they have shifted over time, the assumptions and stereotypes that underpin those ideas are often deeply-rooted.”
“A large majority of people that have been pregnant or have given birth identify as women,” the memo continues. “We can include intersex men and transmen who may get pregnant by saying ‘pregnant people’ instead of ‘expectant mothers.’”
While Heather Ashton of TG Pals, a support group for transgenders, calls the guidance a “massive step forward to prevent discrimination against” trans people, a great many in Britain have voiced their strong objections to the suggested change, including Conservative MP (Member of Parliament) Philip Davies, who called it “completely ridiculous.”
“If you can’t call a pregnant woman an expectant mother,” Davies said, “then what is the world coming to?”
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large