So, this happened:
Cue the right-wing freak-out. Because suddenly abortion will be in the news non-stop (even though some of us have been trying to tell you this was coming) the AP decided to adapt its writing guidelines for reporters to reflect the fact that not all people who have uteruses are women. In other words, trans folks exist. Trans men are men, and some men, then, can need abortions. It isn't as complicated as right-wingers pretend it is, and "pregnant people" is a much more elegant term than "uterus-havers."
Try explaining that to the propagandists and privileged oppressors on Fox "News."
First we have Rachel Campos-Duffy complaining about trans men being housed with cis-men in prison (sort-of, except she gets her terminology all confused,) and needing birth control so that they don't become pregnant. Has she heard what happens in prison? People do have sex in prison, whether they're housed with people who have the same "plumbing," as Hegseth so maturely stated, or not.
"A lot of prisons they hand out birth control pills because there are trans men, trans women in the prisons and they are really men and they can impregnate the women, all very confusing, this is the world we live in," she moaned. Was she happier when the only sex that was going on was gay sex (and let's not forget rape)?
After playing a gross Tucker Carlson clip sh*tting all over the AP's recognition of the existence of trans folks, Campos-Duffy engaged in some epic gaslighting, touting the "pro"-life movement as the one that actually treats women with respect, and actually asserted that they DON'T "infantilize" women. As a clinic escort, I can verify that that's tragically hilarious.
She lies, it's "the pro-lifers who tell the truth to women and don't infantilize them about the procedure, tell them the truth about what happens after an abortion, which ends up giving people a lot of emotional problems. Problems don't end after the abortion, they get new problems. Those are the people that respect women in the women's movement."
Hegseth leaned in hard to the transphobia: "We should reject this, you are not crazy, the AP is not right! Thousands of years have not changed, men are men and women are women! You should call them mothers, and Happy Mother's Day, not Happy Birthing Persons Day!"
He's also terrified the word "mother" will be stricken from the English language entirely, and students won't be allowed to scrawl the word in their college essays. But it "has nothing to do with bigotry or trans phobia!" and everyone should just STAND UP to make sure the term "birthing people" never gets adopted! Just like all the already-alive children languishing in foster homes, right?
Will Cain wants to see the polling on how the younglings feel.
"This is a radical minority view that is dominating our culture and dominating our national discourse, but as far as national acceptance is a radically small minority."
Gee, I wonder what it feels like to have a radically small minority dictating you must do something to which you object?
