Doctors’ edict is the mother of all insults
The ability to carry and give birth to a child is the defining difference between a male and a female. But the British Medical Association, as you revealed last week, has issued guidelines for doctors to call expectant mothers ‘pregnant people’. With the word ‘mother’ eliminated from our vocabulary, will the BMA come up with another word to describe them?
Barbara Smith, Eastbourne Isn’t it time that someone in authority stopped organisations such as the BMA making edicts like the one on ‘expectant mothers’? These people would be better employed elsewhere – might I suggest working in A&E on Friday and Saturday nights.
N. Woods, Chilton, Co Durham Your front page last week was blatantly transphobic. You need to accept that calling a pregnant trans man a ‘mother’ is misgendering. This is not about political correctness – it’s about respect.
Lana Bartowski, TransCendent!!! All that is being asked for is some sensitivity concerning trans mothers – something they will have seen little of throughout their lives. In reality this won’t affect the way that mothers with conventional backgrounds are treated. Instead we should spare a thought for those whose lives will have been made extraordinarily difficult because of the bodies they were born in.
J. McLean, Manchester Surely doctors already have enough on their plates without having to decide what to call expectant mothers?
Jane Page, Haslemere, Surrey To declare that a pregnant woman should now be referred to as a ‘pregnant person’ is utter madness. It’s not just an insult to women, but to the human race.
Judith MacBeth, Reading Doctors being instructed to call pregnant women ‘pregnant people’ instead of mothers is ridiculous and insulting to most mothersto-be, but I bet it will not end there. I look forward to the renaming of the Mothers’ Union to the ‘Childbearing Persons’ Union’ and Mother Teresa to ‘Catholic Person Teresa’.
Roger Lancaster, Bristol If the liberal establishment keep determining what we can say, it is only a matter of time before we all say ‘enough is enough’ and turn on them.
If minority groups wish to thrive, I suggest they start to bring pressure to bear on the misguided liberals who purport to indulge them but who in the end will be the catalyst for their destruction.
Kevin Coley, Leicester