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Abortion rights and trans rights are inextricably linked. [1]

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Date: 2022-07-14

There are quite a few people here on this site trying to argue that trans rights are a distraction from abortion rights. For example, objecting to the use of the inclusive term “pregnant people” for various reasons, ranging from “it sounds odd” to “people who are not female who can get pregnant are a tiny minority so we should focus on this as a women’s rights issue” to “it makes women feel erased”.

I don’t agree with that. In fact, I emphatically disagree with it. Inclusive language is never wrong to use, and allowing concern about how people may react to it to convince you that it is better not to use it is a fundamental mistake in judgment. Take this from someone who spent entirely too many years being far too concerned about how people would react to the language I used to say what I wanted.

There’s also another reason why it’s a bad idea to try to treat trans rights as a separate issue from abortion rights. Because the Republican attacks on trans rights and abortion rights are actually both attacks on the same right to bodily autonomy. Recognizing that is critical to being able to stop them.

And this has happened before.

https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/6-may-1933-looting-of-the-institute-of-sexology/

The Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute of Sexology) was a premier institute in Berlin that pioneered research into transsexualism. In fact, that term was coined in 1923, 99 years ago, by people at the institute. It offered endocrinology and surgical services as well as helping gay/lesbian people navigate a society hostile to them. That ended in 1933 when the facility was occupied by the German Student Union, which seized and later burned all of the research there. It happened within months of Hitler’s appointment as chancellor.

At roughly the same time the infamous Paragraph 219a was enacted by the Nazi-controlled parliament, which criminalized abortions with a decade in prison for both the physician and the pregnant person.

These are not separate issues. They are both fronts in the same war being waged on bodily autonomy. Both have to be defended; we cannot afford to focus on one and leave the other vulnerable. So as far as I’m concerned, if we can defend both at once — such as through the use of inclusive language — all the better.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/14/2110283/-Abortion-rights-and-trans-rights-are-inextricably-linked

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