CDC Draws Heat for Erasing Women with 'Pregnant People' in Adopting Gender-Neutral Terms for Health Guidance
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has become the latest organization pushing the woke agenda over real science.
The U.K. Daily Mail reported Dec. 3 that the CDC was under fire from critics for replacing the word “woman” with “pregnant people” as part of its recommendations promoting COVID-19 and flu vaccines.
In fact, the CDC had removed all gender-specific terms entirely, including “she,” “her,” “women” and “mother” when referring to a pregnant woman.
Flu can be wildly dangerous during pregnancy.
If you’re pregnant, CDC recommends you get a flu shot to tame symptoms if you do get sick. Studies have shown #flu shots are safe for both the pregnant person and baby.
Read more at: https://t.co/71S9dH5Urh #FightFlu pic.twitter.com/O07wJciW8x
— CDC (@CDCgov) November 8, 2023
The use of such language was slammed by the likes of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and Roger Severino, the former head of the Office for Civil Rights within Health and Human Services in the Trump administration.
‘The CDC is supposed to be an apolitical bastion of science, but here they are cowering to political forces, a small minority but highly influential entities, who are trying to change language, Orwellian style, to force acceptance of an absurdity,” Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of APPS, told the Daily Mail.
“All pregnant persons are women,” she continued. “A trans man is a woman who is trying to alter her body to resemble a man’s. She is endangering her baby’s health if she is taking testosterone. The CDC ought to be warning about that.”
Severino told the Daily Mail that there is “no medical reason to start changing basic scientific terminology.”
“It’s anti-science in the extreme because where the biological reality of male and female matters most is in the health sciences and in medicine, and to politicize it… offends science and common sense,” he explained.
Stella O’Malley, a psychotherapist and director of the group Genspect, which opposes many aspects of the transgender agenda, called the CDC’s tactics “dangerous,” according to the Daily Mail.
Some groups, such as those who speak English as a second language, might find the nomenclature confusing, she said.
“There was no need to replace the word ‘woman’ with the words ‘pregnant person.’ In medical matters, clarity and simplicity should be prioritized so that everyone can understand what is involved,” O’Malley told the Daily Mail.
‘Some people, especially those for whom English is not a first language, will not understand what is meant by “pregnant people” yet they would readily understand ‘mothers.
“It’s an appalling example of how politics is increasingly interfering with medicine.”
It is not the first time that the CDC has omitted “women” and referenced “pregnant people” instead.
In 2021, then-CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky was met with harsh criticism after she warned how “pregnant people” should get the COVID-19 vaccine.
In the X social media account “@CDCDirector,” Walensky wrote:
“The rise in cases, vaccine hesitancy, and the increased risk of severe illness for pregnant people make vaccination against #COVID19 more urgent than ever,” she wrote at the time. “Read why @CDCgov recommends that pregnant people should be vaccinated against COVID-19.”
The @CDCDirector account now bears the name of current CDC Director, Dr. Mandy K. Cohen.
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