Senator Josh Hawley called 'transphobic' for framing abortion as a 'women's issue'

In a US Senate hearing on Thursday, Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley questioned a witness for her use of the phrase "people with the capacity for pregnancy," in keeping with a recent cultural trend among progressives to refrain from using the term "woman" when referring to female anatomy or childbirth.

Khiara Bridges, a Berkeley law professor and author of Critical Race Theory: A Primer, was one of five panelists to testify in a hearing about the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. In a statement addressing the court, Bridges used the phrase "people with the capacity for pregnancy" five times in a single minute.

Senator Hawley asked Bridges for clarification on her choice of words, saying, "You’ve referred to people with a capacity for pregnancy, would that be women?"

Bridges explained that besides women, transgender men and those who identify as "non-binary" are "capable of pregancy as well." But this ignores the property that unites both transgender men and the women who call themselves non-binary— being biologically female. These language games, coupled with the practice of pretending not to understand basic principles of reproduction are becoming increasingly common among Left-wing progressives, and serves as a form of political purity test.  

Hawley, pressing Bridges for more information asked, "So this isn’t really a women’s rights issue?"

"We can recognize that this impacts women while also recognizing other groups," replied Bridges.

"All right, so your view is that the core of this right, then, is about what?" Hawley asked, referring to the long held belief that abortion, a central pillar of the Democratic party platform for decades, is a women’s rights issue.

But rather than answer the question directly, Bridges went on the offensive by deploying a common evasion tactic used by Left-wing activists, saying "I want to recognize that your line of questioning is transphobic and it opens up trans people to violence by not recognizing them." This ploy attempts to shut down criticism by painting all those who disagree with progressive ideology surrounding "gender identity" as transphobic and hateful.

"So I want to note that one out of five transgender persons have attempted suicide," Bridges added, alluding to false claims about the risks posed to transgender people for questioning the ideology of gender identity. Statistics are frequently misused by trans rights activists to manipulate parents and lawmakers into making rushed decisions that align with activists’ goals on isues of sex and gender.

Bridges then dared Hawley to question the tenets of gender ideology by asking him directly, "So you believe that men cannot get pregnant?"

"No, I don't think that men can get pregnant," Hawley responded.

"Then you are denying that trans people exist," she hyperbolically asserted, equating disagreement about the concept of transgenderism with "denying the existence" of trans people.

After the hearing, Hawley took to Twitter to comment on the exchange: "The Democrats say what they really think: men can get pregnant and if you disagree, you are 'transphobic' and responsible for violence."