Abortion glossary :: Pregnant Person
A pregnant person (or pregnant individual, or pregnant patient) is a person who is pregnant because their body is incubating - actively developing - one or more intra-uterine zygotes, embryos, blastocysts, or foetuses.
Debating strategy
Many anti-choice people object to the use of inclusive terminology like "pregnant person" and "pregnant individual" that recognizes someone who's pregnant as an individual person. While the more hardline misogyinstic anti-choice people reject the fact that women are people, most anti-choice people are promoting cisnormativity based on the incorrect assumption that a person's gender identity always matches their sex assigned at birth. (Some anti-choice people also claim that their opinion is scientifically justified, which is incorrect since modern medicine is entirely science-based.)
Responding with a question about why the misogynist thinks women aren't people is good, but it tends to derail the conversation only temporarily (because many of them are accustomed to be confronted about this), and there is more that one can venture into with them...
A common anti-choice objection is the false claim that "only women can become pregnant," which is incorrect for at least the following reasons:
- young girls can become pregnant
- teenage girls can become pregnant
- a person, incidental to their sex or gender, with sufficiently-developed and functioning reproductive organs (e.g., a womb) can become pregnant
Obstetric Medicine industry professionals have been increasingly supporting the normalization of gender-inclusive terms like "pregnant person" and "pregnant individual" in the context of pregnancy and birthing because the myriad modalities of becoming a "parent" - albeit not necessarily a "mother" - has provided an impetus to develop more precise language for taking better care of all people who require obstetrical services.
Journal references
- 2021-Dec-02: Sage Journals: Recognizing and renaming in obstetrics: How do we take better care with language?
See also