Conservatives blasted Wisconsin State Representative Francesca Hong, a Democrat, for calling women “birthing bodies” on Monday night while discussing news on the potential overturn of Roe v. Wade.
After an alleged draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion revoking the controversial ruling leaked on Monday night, Democratic lawmakers across the United States affirmed their support of abortion. While echoing the same position, Hong omitted the use of the word “woman” and instead chose the term “birthing bodies.”
“Birthing bodies have the right to freedom,” she said on Twitter. “Deciding if or when to become a parent is one of the most personal, life-changing decisions. Access to abortion & reproductive care is a decision we must trust each person to make based on what’s best for their health & their future.”
Birthing bodies have the right to freedom.
Deciding if or when to become a parent is one of the most personal, life-changing decisions. Access to abortion & reproductive care is a decision we must trust each person to make based on what’s best for their health & their future.
— Rep. Francesca Hong 홍윤정 (@StateRepHong) May 3, 2022
Conservatives on social media then blasted Hong for her erasure of women.
“We have a name,” women’s magazine Evie replied. “Birthing bodies doesn’t even make sense since women getting abortions are literally not birthing.”
“‘Birthing bodies.’ But presumably not pre-born bodies. These ridiculous people,” Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro said.
“‘Birthing bodies’ ????” television host Piers Morgan added. “Why don’t you start with affording women the right to be called women.”
“At least acknowledge that they’re human, even if recognizing humanity is not particularly your specialty,” Fox News Digital Senior Editor Emily Zanotti noted.
Progressives calling women “birthing bodies” or “birthing people” is by no means new. Last year, Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) used the term “black birthing people” during testimony to Congress. Weeks later, President Joe Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal demanded $200 million for maternal health care — but also referred to mothers as “birthing people.”
After the chief medical officer at the New York City Department of Health called white mothers “birthing people” last month while referring to black and Puerto Rican women as simply “mothers,” the department apologized for “inadvertently gendering Black and Puerto Rican birthing people.”
Beyond their support of abortion, Democrats are demanding that the federal government “codify” Roe v. Wade — a position that aligns with the official platform of the Biden administration. Among other state and federal officials, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. and U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman claimed that “The right to an abortion is sacred.”
“That abortion supporters are working to codify legal abortion federally is only further confirmation of the obvious: abortion is not a right recognized by the Constitution or federal statute,” Free The States communications director James Silberman explained to The Daily Wire last year. “There is no federal right to abortion, and there is nothing resembling a right to abortion. There was a rogue court which invented the ‘right to abortion’ from whole cloth.”
“What are constitutionally guaranteed, on the other hand, are the rights to life and equal protection,” Silberman continued. “Equal protection for preborn children is a mandate for every public official.”