Yesterday, the U.S. Senate voted on the “Woman’s Health Protection Act of 2021.”

The bill (H.R. 3755) was the most extreme, radical pro-abortion piece of legislation ever considered by the United States Congress, and thankfully, it fell far short of gaining the 60 votes needed to move forward to a final vote.

The motion failed 46-48, with three Democrats and three Republicans not voting on the measure, and Democrat Senator Joe Manchin joining all other Republicans in opposition to the bill.

The act would have prohibited “states from creating any new law to restrict abortion access” and would have invalidated “hundreds of state abortion laws already on the books across the country.”

Some of the laws the bill would have invalidated (among others) include:

  • Laws prohibiting the gruesome procedure called partial-birth abortion, where a preborn baby is half-delivered prior to being killed.
  • Protections for babies born alive after a failed abortion attempt.
  • Parental consent requirements.
  • Bans on late-term abortion.
  • Restrictions on discriminatory abortion that are done based on a preborn baby’s race, sex, or disability.

The bill is evil. Plain and simple. And it’s good it was defeated.

But one of the most curious parts of the bill is its erasure of the word “women” from its text.

According to The Washington Examiner, a 2017 version of the bill read that its purpose was “to protect a woman’s right and ability to determine whether and when to bear a child or end a pregnancy by limiting restrictions on the provision of abortion services.”

However, the version that was considered yesterday was changed to read: “To protect a person’s ability to determine whether to continue or end a pregnancy, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide abortion services” (emphasis added).

The act also refers to “people who are pregnant,” and argues that abortion is necessary “for the preservation of the life or health of the person who is pregnant.”

In fact, in the limited times that the bill does refer specifically to “women,” it essentially apologizes for doing so.

“The terms ‘woman’ and ‘women’ are used in this bill to reflect the identity of the majority of people targeted and affected by restrictions on abortion services,” the bill states.

In other words, the bill claims that a minority of individuals who have abortions aren’t women.

The bill continues:

“Access to abortion services is critical to the health of every person capable of becoming pregnant. This Act is intended to protect all people with the capacity for pregnancy—cisgender women, transgender men, non-binary individuals, those who identify with a different gender, and others—who are unjustly harmed by restrictions on abortion services.”

“Every person capable of becoming pregnant?”

You mean… women?

The instance reflects the lack of coherence that gender identity politics has brought to our culture.

And not only in the text, but also in speeches supporting the bill, some Senate Democrats referred to a “person’s” so-called right to abortion.

National Review writer Alexandra DeSanctis Marr tweeted, “Judging from their floor statements tonight, Senate Democrats are following abortion-advocacy groups in jettisoning the word ‘women’ and replacing it with ‘people’ in the context of abortion. So much for ‘women’s health,’ ‘women’s rights,’ and the war on women!”

Yet, even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer didn’t adopt the left’s new gender-neutral language. In a tweet advocating for the bill, he repeatedly used the word “women.”

“Abortion is a fundamental right,” Schumer tweeted. “Women’s decisions over women’s health care belong to women, not to extremist right-wing legislatures. Today, the Senate will vote on moving forward on the Women’s Health Protection Act to protect abortion rights” (emphasis added).

Bu last year, Majority Leader Schumer tweeted “Trans rights are human rights.”

The left can’t have it both ways.

Either abortion is particularity a women’s issue, because only women can get pregnant, or men can get pregnant and it’s not just a women’s issue.

If “trans rights are human rights” and men can become pregnant (narrator: “they can’t”), then those on the left cannot refer to “women’s decisions” or “women’s health care.”

If the Senate Majority leader can’t keep up with the gender ideologues, who can?

For those who believe that men can get pregnant, answer me this riddle:

What is a woman?

Photo from Shutterstock.