Ministers in the UK have been ridiculed for trying to ban the term “pregnant women” — as it could offend transgender parents.

Instead, they’d like the term changed to “pregnant people”, so as to not “exclude transgender people who have given birth”.

Fellow MPs and feminists both in the UK and around the world have slammed the move, calling it an “absolutely idiotic” proposal, according to The Sun.

According to The Sunday Times, in the statement from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) they pointed out that Britain opposes the use of the term “pregnant woman” in the part of the UN treaty which says they must be protected and not subject to the death penalty.

“We requested that the UN human rights committee made it clear that the same right [to life for pregnant women] extends to pregnant transgender people.”,

The civil servants’ intervention has infuriated feminists, who branded it the latest example of “making women unmentionable”.

Australia agrees

In Australia the Nursing and Midwifery Board has been slammed for trying to remove the word ‘woman’ from their code of conduct.

The board had proposed replacing the word ‘woman’ with ‘person’ so as not to offend females who identify as men, but that idea was shot down when complaints flowed in from around Australia.

The new Code of Conduct for Midwives, which was due to come into effect from March 1, 2018 will retain the phrase ‘woman-centred’.

Australian College of Midwives spokeswoman Sarah Stewart said it was important to protect women’s identity.

‘Once we start moving down the road of talking about women as persons, we lose women’s identity – fundamental essence,’ she told The Advertiser.

Ms Stewart said although there were ‘individual instances’ of females who identify as men, the vast majority of people cared for by midwives are women.

A spokesperson for the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia and AHPRA said:

‘There was support for the use of both ‘woman-centered’ and ‘person-centered’ in the feedback on the Code of conduct for midwives.

Overall the feedback from the midwifery profession and key midwifery stakeholders, including the College of Midwives, strongly supported the use of the term ‘woman’ to describe the interaction between a midwife and the person receiving care.

‘The feedback covered that “woman-centred” is a term well understood by midwives and women are at the centre of midwifery care.

‘The definition of the term “woman” is very broad and refers to all individuals who have entered into a professional relationship with a midwife.

‘”Woman” is inclusive of the woman’s baby, partner and family.

‘Based on the consultation feedback, the NMBA decided to continue with the term “woman-centred care” in the new Code of conduct for midwives, which comes in to effect in 2018.’

Renewed calls sparks backlash

A group calling for Australians to be more inclusive by adopting non-gender specific terms has been slammed on social media.

The Equality Institute, a Melbourne-based ‘feminist’ organisation, is renowned for improving gender equality but their tweet about pregnancy on Tuesday caused a huge backlash.

In the tweet, the global research and creative agency suggested people should use the term pregnant ‘pregnant people’ instead of ‘pregnant women’.

‘People of all genders can fall pregnant, because people of all genders can have the reproductive organs to do so,’ the tweet stated.

‘Consider all people – including trans & non-binary folk – & ensure that your language is inclusive of everyone.’

The Tweet gained lots of negative response with many people disagreeing with their message.

The Equality Institute needs to go back to school for a few lessons in biology. #onlywomengetnpregnant https://t.co/uLXtjG6hd9

— Samantha ????????✨???? (@samantha3050) October 10, 2018

Seen a couple of posts from this Equality Institute …

Now, it may have been a long time ago but if I remember my schoolgirl biology lessons …

Women have babies, the term is pregnant women.
Someone with a penis & testicles is definitely male, not non-binary

???? FFS! pic.twitter.com/xftNkoaXBl

— ???????? Vicki ⚽️ Wolfe ???? (@Onlyvickiwolfe) October 11, 2018

This is been a crazy day of gender-bending for sure, what with the transgender whatever explaining physics to us and now the Equality Institute tell us how guys can get pregnant now. I’m freaking out just a little bit.#glamrou #equalityinstitute #insanity #alternatereality

— Switchingears.com (@Switchingears) October 11, 2018

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