Oklahoma Senator James Lankford recently grilled Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra over the White House’s $6 trillion Fiscal Year 2022 budget proposal which replaces the words “mothers” and “birth mothers” with “birthing people.”
During the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the administration’s proposed budget, Sen. Lankford asked Secretary Becerra if he could help him “get a good definition of ‘birthing people’?”
“I’ll check on the language there, but I think if we’re talking about those who give birth, I think we’re talking about … I don’t know how else to explain it to you,” the secretary responded.
Senator Lankford then told Secretary Becerra he was “a little taken aback when I just read it and saw that the term mother was gone… and it was replaced with ‘birthing people’ … is this a direction you are going?”
“Again, I’d have to go back and take a look at the language that was used in the budget,” Secretary Becerra responded. “But I think again it simply reflects the work that’s being done.”
In response, Senator Lankford asked the secretary if he could at least admit that calling a mom a “birthing person” could be offensive. Moms “don’t want to get a ‘Happy birthing person card,” the senator asserted.
“Again … we’re trying to be precise in the language that’s used,” Secretary Becerra responded.
Senator Lankford concluded: “‘Mom’ is a pretty good word. That’s worked for a while and I think that’s pretty precise as well.”
As The Daily Citizen previously explained, interchanging “birthing persons” for “mothers” is “part of an ongoing drive from gender ideologues to erase male-female distinctions. After all, if a woman ‘transitions’ to live as the opposite sex, then it’s a ‘man’ who gives birth, right?”
“No. Language like ‘birthing people’ denigrates and insults women, who are uniquely created and gifted by God to harbor a growing life in their bodies and give birth.”
Focus President Jim Daly tweeted his thanks to Senator Lankford following the hearing, writing, “Thank you @SenatorLankford for holding @XavierBecerra accountable for insulting women.”
Related article:
Federal Budget Proposal Describes “Birth Mothers” as “Birthing People”
Photo from Shutterstock
