NIH refuses to say 'women,' refers to them as 'pregnant and lactating people'

Some may remember the good old days when political correctness and woke ideology hadn't infected America's scientific institutions. Well, those days are long gone.

For proof, one need look no further than to a recent news release from the National Institutes of Health in which the organization repeatedly opted not to utter the word "women," instead choosing to describe them as "pregnant and lactating people."

In the news release, scientists lamented the fact that thus far pregnant women have not been included in coronavirus vaccine trials and that due to their exclusion, many pregnant women now face the difficult decision of whether or not to receive the vaccine without the benefit of scientific evidence regarding its safety.

In response, the institute is calling for greater inclusion for pregnant women in vaccine research. The topic is an important one and worthy of discussion, but sadly it will undoubtedly be overshadowed by the institute's woke choice to refer to such individuals as "pregnant and lactating people."

After the NIH tweeted the release using the same phrasing, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro jumped in to clarify, writing, "You mean 'women.'"

The NIH uses the nonbinary phrase several times throughout the news release and at one point even refers to women who are not carrying a child in their wombs as "non-pregnant adults."

Amazingly, the release only uses the word "women" twice, both times in its mention of the 2016 establishment of the "Task Force on Research Specific to Pregnant Women and Lactating Women." It serves as an example of how fast things may be changing in the scientific community, as now, only four years later, the institute feels the need to edit every mention of the word.

Some commenters on Twitter made sure to educate Shapiro on why the NIH opted to use the word "people" rather than "women" by pointing out that while biological males cannot become pregnant, some biological females who identify as transgender men can. Those individuals, of course, would reject being labeled as women.

Furthermore, though rare, it appears to be theoretically possible for men to lactate — if they pump their bodies full of hormone-boosting pharmaceuticals, that is.