NHS reportedly set to remove inclusive language from documents in Tory ‘gender ideology’ crackdown
Amendments to the NHS constitution will remove inclusive language. (Getty)
Inclusive language is reportedly set to be be removed from NHS documents under leaked new plans.
According to The Telegraph, government proposals aimed at cracking down on what it calls “gender ideology” are expected to be announced this week.
Planned changes are said to include a ban on words such as “chest-feeding”, and only people who have ovaries will be referred to as “women.” Patients will also be given the option to request that care be carried out by a professional whose sex assigned at birth matches their own.
“The government has been clear that biological sex matters, and women and girls are entitled to receive the protection and privacy they need in all healthcare settings,” a source told The Telegraph.
“Our proposed updates to the NHS constitution will give patients the right to request same-sex intimate care and accommodation, to protect their safety, privacy and dignity.”
The announcement comes after health secretary Victoria Atkins said she believed “fashionable cultural values” had overtaken so-called “biological reality”.
In a statement commending the recent Cass report, Atkins told MPs that the increase in demand for trans healthcare clinics was built on a “myth” of gender ideology.
The Cass report on the model of trans youth care in England was led by paediatric expert Dr Hilary Cass, who led a review in response to the sharp rise in referrals to what was then England’s only youth gender clinic.
“That near-uniform prescription was imposed on children and young people with complex needs without full and thoughtful consideration of their wider needs … the NHS was overtaken by a culture of secrecy and ideology that was allowed to trump evidence and safety,” Atkins claimed.
Not only will the new NHS constitution prohibit inclusive language, it is believed that it will also ban transgender women from female wards.
The proposal to prevent trans people entering female wards came about in October when then health secretary Steve Barclay said it was “common sense”.
Barclay was “fed up” with an “agenda” and the “damage [it was] causing”, a Conservative source said.
“Language like ‘chest-feeding’, talking about pregnant ‘people’, rather than women, it exasperates the vast majority of people, and he is determined to take action,” the source added.
Despite the claims, a Freedom of Information request from advocacy group TransLuscent revealed that there had not been a single complaint about the presence of transgender women in female wards.
