The World Health Organization recently announced it will be updating its gender mainstreaming manual “in light of new scientific evidence and conceptual progress.” The guidance addresses how gender inequality affects health outcomes. Going forward, it will place an emphasis on “intersectionality,” “equity,” and the idea that gender is “a continuum” and biological sex is “not limited to male or female.”
The desire to remove discriminatory barriers to healthcare is admirable, but importing an extreme-left framework isn’t the way to do it. How can anyone advocate the well-being of women and girls without an accurate understanding of who among us are female?
Regarding the claim that gender and sex are nonbinary, gender fluidity is a political designation, not a scientific one. As well, the existence of intersex people does not represent a third sex but variation within binary sex categories. The absurdity of this ideology is exemplified in the recent exchange between Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Khiara Bridges, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, during a Senate hearing discussing the ramifications of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion.
Bridges referred to women as “people with a capacity for pregnancy.” When Hawley sought clarification, asking, “Would that be women?” Bridges accused his line of questioning of being transphobic because transgender men and “nonbinary” people can be pregnant. The debate was reminiscent of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson telling Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing that she couldn’t define the word “woman” because she is “not a biologist.”
We can go around and around with word games. As new incarnations like “womb-carriers” and “birthing bodies” are created every day, what happens when these ideas spread to medical decision-making? Redefining language may control what people are willing to say or believe, but it cannot change biology or material reality. A pregnant woman has a different set of health concerns than a man or a transgender man who is pregnant. In some cases, this can be a matter of life or death.
Should you encounter these woke initiatives when seeking care, here’s what you can do to push back. If someone asks you for your pronouns, don’t feel pressured to answer. Tell them the question makes you uncomfortable, or better yet, find a practitioner that doesn’t partake in these exchanges. For anyone using placatory language like “birth-giver,” remind them that the word they are searching for is “woman.”
Dr. Debra Soh is a sex neuroscientist, the host of The Dr. Debra Soh Podcast, and the author of The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society.
* Article from: The Washington Examiner