British Prime Minister Theresa May said the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s recommendation that the phrase “pregnant women” be changed to “pregnant people” in a U.N. document is overblown.
“Of course pregnant women is an acceptable term,” May’s spokesperson said Monday at a Westminster press briefing, according to The Telegraph.
May’s statement comes after the Foreign and Commonwealth Office suggested the phrase “pregnant women” needs to be more inclusive and changed in a U.N. treaty. The office’s suggestion on proposed amendments to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights claims the wording excludes pregnant transgender individuals—there have been two pregnant transgender people on record in the U.K.
The treaty says “pregnant women” are protected and not subject to the death penalty, reported The Times.
“We requested that the U.N. Human Rights Committee made it clear that the same right extends to pregnant transgender people,” Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials told The Times.
Some feminists weren’t happy about the possible terminology changes. “This isn’t inclusion. This is making women unmentionable,” said prominent feminist writer Sarah Ditum. “Forcing us to decorously scrub out any reference to our sex on pain of being called bigots is an insult.”
The British government is also considering cutting a census question asking citizens to identify gender and biological sex for the 2021 census.
“We strongly support the right to life of pregnant women, and we have requested that the Human Rights Committee does not exclude pregnant transgender people from that right to life,” a Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson said.
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