The language we use to talk about pregnancy and abortion is changing. But not everyone welcomes the shift – CTV
Sept. 4, 2022
From patient waiting rooms to the halls of Congress, the language being used to talk about reproduction is shifting.
Across the U.S., mainstream institutions such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and CNN are increasingly opting for gender-neutral terms such as “pregnant people,” “people who get abortions” and “birthing parent” in favour of “women” when referencing pregnancy, fertility and abortion.
These shifts in terminology signal an effort to be inclusive of transgender and nonbinary people who can also get pregnant. But the changes have also prompted pushback — not just from Republican politicians who are openly hostile to LGBTQ people but also from some cisgender women (women whose gender identity conforms with the sex they were assigned at birth) who consider themselves LGBTQ allies and who support abortion rights.
