Gendered vocabulary should be removed from pregnancy care, suggests Labour MP

A Labour MP has suggested that gendered vocabulary should be removed from pregnancy care and parenthood, as he called for “greater awareness” of trans men who have given birth.

Alex Sobel argued that failing to ask trans men if there is a possibility they could be pregnant before hospital treatment could result in “serious consequences”.

Speaking during a debate focused on International Men’s Day, Mr Sobel began his speech by saying: “Trans men are men.”

Across the NHS there needs to be a greater awareness of trans men and trans masculine people who have given birth

He told the Commons: “Trans men and trans masculine people face a number of barriers in accessing equal quality healthcare on the NHS, waiting lists to receive top surgery on the NHS are in excess of four to five years just for a consultation in England, and waiting lists are growing.

“This leaves a situation where trans men and trans masculine individuals are forced to pay for private care, which not everyone can do, as we know. Or to put up with dysphoria and other associated mental health impacts, for which there is a lack of sector-wide support and training.

“Top surgery drastically improves wellbeing and saves lives.”

The MP for Leeds Central and Headingley added: “Across the NHS there needs to be a greater awareness of trans men and trans masculine people who have given birth.

“For example (if) a trans man is not asked whether he could pregnant before receiving a dose of radiation, there could be serious consequences. We can begin by removing gendered vocabulary from pregnancy care and parenthood.”

Mr Sobel described the experience of journalist Freddy McConnell who was “unable to be listed as his child’s father”.

He continued: “The High Court ruled that even though he was considered (a) man by law and had a gender recognition certificate to prove it, he could not appear on his child’s birth certificate as father or even parent.

“The same problems occur in access to cervical cancer treatment, currently a trans man or non-binary person with a male sex mark on their NHS record will not be included in the recall system.

“In this area the law is all over the place, there needs to be more input from trans people themselves.”

Intervening, Labour former minister Dawn Butler said: “Trans men are often missed out of the trans debate, but also are subject to some real cruel behaviour and often suffer violence against them, such as rape, and it’s under-reported.”

Equalities minister Dame Nia Griffith said: “The Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that trans people can receive the care and the support that they need when accessing NHS services, and that we as a Government do frequently engage with a wide range of stakeholders in this area, including the LGBT+ health adviser, Dr Michael Brady.”

In her own speech, Ms Butler called on the Government to tackle the issue of incels, which are an online group who describe themselves as “involuntary celibates”.

The MP for Brent East said: “Fourteen men die each day by suicide, it is an alarming number and there is a continued crisis in male suicide, it is the leading cause of death in under-50s.

I think it’s important we tackle this crisis head-on, and send a strong message from this House that incels are not in any way a good representation of a good man

“And I believe that there’s a direct correlation between the increase in mental health amongst men and the growth of incels, which are involuntary celibates.

“That is a growing underground, very worrying group of young men, and this movement is defined by misogyny which believes in the idea that men have lost the genetic lottery and are destined to fail with women.

“Incels are often poorly educated boys and men, and they justify violence against women by their ideological stances.

“And I think it’s important we tackle this crisis head-on, and send a strong message from this House that incels are not in any way a good representation of a good man.

“Women are not the enemy.

“With one woman killed every three days by a man, we need men to speak up and speak out.

“And we need men to be louder than the social media toxic men that have very huge platforms and we need them to speak louder than men with power and the men in power, and some of the men soon to get power.

“And so we have a lot of work to do.

“Twenty per cent of incels contemplate suicide every day and there are well-documented terrorist attacks and mass killings by incels, so International Men’s Day is important for everyone.”

Earlier in the debate, Labour MP Sam Rushworth (Bishop Auckland) said: “Andrew Tate … seems to be having a really pernicious influence on many boys and seems to promote a version of masculinity that I believe is deeply harmful both to boys and to the girls that they then interact with.”