Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley sparred Tuesday with Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges after she called him “transphobic” for suggesting only women get pregnant.
Hawley questioned Bridges on whether her usage of the phrase “people with the capacity for pregnancy” referred to women. The professor said “transgender men” and “non-binary people” have the ability to get pregnant.
“So this isn’t really a women’s rights issue, it’s a what?” Hawley said.
“We can recognize that this impacts women while also recognizing that it impacts other groups. Those things are not mutually exclusive, Sen. Hawley,” she said.
Bridges accused the senator of “opening up trans people to violence” for asking about the “core” of the right to access an abortion, given her argument that pregnancy applies to groups other than women.
“I want to recognize that your line of questioning is transphobic and it opens up trans people to violence by not recognizing —”
“Wow, you’re saying that I’m opening up people to violence by asking whether or not women are the folks who can have pregnancies?” the senator interjected. (RELATED: ‘Not Just Women That Are Getting Pregnant’: Abortion Activists Sound Off At ‘Ban Off Our Bodies’ March)
“I want to not that 1 in 5 transgender persons have attempted suicide, so I think it’s important —” she said.
“Because of my line of questioning? So we can’t talk about it?” he pressed.
“Because denying that trans people exist and pretending not to know they exist —”
“I’m denying that trans people exist by asking you if you’re talking about women having pregnancies?” the senator asked.
Bridges asked Hawley if he believes men can get pregnant, which he denied. She argued he denied that transgender people exist by believing only women can become pregnant.
“Is this how you run your classroom? Are students allowed to question you or are they also treated like this where they’re told that they are opening up people to violence by questioning?” he asked.
The idea that men, as well as women, can get pregnant has become a common theme and belief among left-wing figures. AVOW executive director Aimee Arrambide, a Democratic witness, testified before Congress that men have the ability to carry a child and have an abortion during a Judiciary Committee hearing May 18.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra did not directly answer Republican Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert on whether men can get pregnant during an April 6 hearing. After repeating the question, he told the representative that “he is not aware” of men becoming pregnant.
Liberal lawmakers and pundits have attempted to replace the term “mother” with “birthing people.” Democratic Missouri Rep. Cori Bush first coined the term at a Democratic oversight committee hearing in 2021. President Joe Biden used the term to describe mothers in a proposed budget proposal surrounding maternal health.
Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford pressed Becerra during a June 2021 Senate Finance Committee hearing on the President’s Fiscal Year 2022 Budget. The HHS secretary struggled to define the term “birthing people,” telling the senator he will review the terminology.