Democratic $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill Calls Mothers Both ‘Lactating,’ ‘Birthing’ Individuals

The Daily Caller

Democrats’ $3.5 trillion spending package refers to mothers as both “pregnant” and “lactating” individuals on 11 separate occasions.

Though the spending package specifically mentions the word “mother” three times and the word “maternal” 50 times, the spending bill avoids gendered language and refers to “pregnant, lactating, and postpartum individuals” on 11 other occasions when discussing maternal health conditions or concerns.

The terms appear to be inconsistently mixed: for example, the phrase “pregnant, lactating, and postpartum individuals” is used four times in Section 31045 of the spending package, which is titled “Funding for maternal mental health equity grant programs.”

This is not the first time that Democrats have struggled for consistency as they attempt to avoid gendered language.


The House of Representatives passed legislation Friday that did not follow gender-neutral “inclusive language” rules, instead of using the words “woman” and “women” to discuss pregnancy and abortion.


“The terms ‘woman’ and ‘women’ … reflect the identity of the majority of people targeted and affected by restrictions on abortion services,” the Women’s Health Protection Act text reads.

Earlier this month, Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez referred to women, “people who do give birth” and “any menstruating person” in the same two minutes as she described how the Texas Heartbeat Act will affect women.

And in January, Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced a resolution calling for the elimination of gendered terms for the 117th Congress.

The resolution called to modify the House rules with regard to pronouns and references to family relations, such as father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister. These words would be changed to “parent, child, sibling, spouse, or parent-in-law,” according to the resolution.

Though Pelosi herself announced the changes, the California Democrat’s Twitter profile retains language that does not follow these guidelines. Almost nine months later, Pelosi still has the terms “mother” and “grandmother” in her Twitter bio.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact  licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. Read the full story at the Daily Caller News Foundation

 

You appear to be using an ad blocker

Shore News Network is a free website that does not use paywalls or charge for access to original, breaking news content. In order to provide this free service, we rely on advertisements. Please support our journalism by disabling your ad blocker for this website.