As it passes legislation about pregnancy, postpartum health and lactation, the City Council is doing its best to avoid using the alarming word “woman.”
“I remain committed to ensuring that every birthing person, regardless of race, income, or ZIP code, has access to the quality care and support they deserve before, during, and after pregnancy,” says Councilwoman Farah Louis.
Don’t use the w-word!
Nor the term “m-ther,” which excludes . . . other genders who give birth?
Speaker Adrienne Adams likewise sponsors a resolution urging Albany to “mandate that Medicaid automatically authorize the coverage of validated blood pressure cuffs and monitors for pregnant and postpartum people.”
Pregnant “people”: Are we really still doing this?
Women are in fact the half of the human race who have uteruses, carry babies to term, give birth and then breastfeed.
Not every woman has babies, but every one of the tens of billions of humans alive today and in ages past was conceived, carried and born by a mother.
Even the council can’t keep the denial going consistently: It intermittently falls back on terms such as “maternal health,” or “maternal mortality” because nothing else really makes sense.
Or maybe (we’ll have to check with the council’s language commisars) it’s OK if the word is rooted in Latin?