The #MOMABill on maternity leave for government ministers is being debated in the House of Lords on Monday 22 Feb

Read our briefing on why the law should not replace "woman" with "pregnant people"

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQFdcC_Q1VlZ1L1Ij9u7-uD2p9GsQRf4og1LyQQztYfXDt0YgQSpPGCQynD7hAMsvPw-qZ6_4kUlSaO/pub

As @ToniaAntoniazzi said the bill is about women. The word was used 300 times in the Commons debate

But @PennyMordaunt said the government's hands are tied by a policy of "gender neutral drafting" introduced in 2007

The Gender Neutral Drafting Guidance is about avoiding saying "he" and "man" when the law covers people of either sex.

It doesn't say that you can't use "woman", "mother", "female" and "she" in relation to pregnancy and maternity!

Since the guidance was brought in in 2007, the law has continued to use "man" and "woman" where sex matters

As @joannaccherry said, this new language is trying to force people to ignore facts and deny biology

It is part of a wider trend of using offensive, dehumanising terms like "cervix havers", "menstruators" and "people with a uterus"

Download the full briefing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r6SMDWVXIMIVZGqgimLcSClDePnkURpk/view?usp=sharing