Missouri Senator Josh Hawley was given a lesson in gender classification and also who can become pregnant at a Senate meeting on abortion on Tuesday.
Berkeley Law Professor Khiara Bridges was testifying on reproductive rights and race experts and caught out the Senator’s line of question.
Khiara Bridges directly accused Josh Hawley’s line of inquiry of being transphobic at the Judicial Committee hearing about the abortion limitation case in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that ultimately led to the Supreme Court’s undoing Roe v. Wade in June.
In the short but sharp series of exchanges, Josh Hawley first asked Prof. Khiara Bridges if she referred to women when she talked about people with the capability for pregnancy.
Prof Bridges pointed out to Josh Hawley that many women, including cis women, can become pregnant while some cannot. In the same way, there are non-binary people and trans-men who can get pregnant as well.
Josh Hawley, retorted by asking the professor if abortion was considered a women’s issue. She replied that this issue impacts among others, also women. It wasn’t something mutually exclusive, she noted.
Josh Hawley Mocks Prof. Bridges And Gets Caught Out
Josh Hawley then pretended to want to discern who was at the core of these abortion rights. Prof. Bridges, realizing his mocking tone of questioning, shot back that the senator’s line of argument was transphobic. It opened up such people to violence by denying their existence.
Prof. Bridges’ emphasis that the right terms and inclusive language be used when it comes to the rights of transgender people comes at a time transgender supporters and rights organizations have spoken out in favor of the right to abortion. The community has also been discriminated against in Republican states through various state laws that have banned the inclusion of transgender youth in sports.
Prof. Bridges noted that many transgenders commit suicide. She pointed out that denying their existence and the fact that trans people can also get pregnant was denying them their rights.
