Saying she is taking a stand against "woke nonsense," Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed an executive order Thursday banning terms like "pregnant person" and "birth giver" from state documents.
The Republican governor called the non-gendered terms insulting to women and said they deny "basic biology and basic grammar." Instead, Sanders said, state officials should use "pregnant woman."
The banned list also includes terms such as chest feeding, body fed, person fed, human milk, birth person, laboring person, menstruating person, and womxn or womyn. State officials should instead use "accurate, female-affirming alternatives," according to the executive order.
The executive order states "XX chromosome is an XX chromosome," and that "There are things only women can do, like perform the miracle of birth."
When asked, Sanders said there was "one specific instance" from the Arkansas Department of Health using one of the now-banned terms, but she did not provide any further details.
"Does it matter? If there's one, is that not enough?" Sanders said. "How many times should a woman have to be insulted before we stand up and say we've had it. Like, it shouldn't even take one time."
A Google search for some of the terms now banned by the executive order shows the Arkansas Department of Health's website using "pregnant people" in a post on covid-19. An additional state document, 2021 regulations from the state Board of Health on milk banks, uses the term "Donor Human Milk," defining it as "milk expressed and donated by lactating women."
"This executive order feels a lot like political posturing and really more of a political stunt to gain support from, you know, some followers," said Dr. Aniruddha Hazra, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago who specializes in infectious diseases and global health. "If Gov. Huckabee Sanders was truly, you know, committed to improving the lives of people who get pregnant in the state of Arkansas, I would expect to see actual investment in that care, in expanding access to prenatal care for everyone."
Maternal health has long been a major issue for Arkansas, with the state having the highest maternal mortality rate in the nation from 2018-2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hazra said gender-neutral language like the terms banned in Sanders' executive order "creates spaces that allow marginalized communities to, again, seek care and feel comfortable in care."
[DOCUMENT: Read Sanders' call for 'female-affirming' terms » arkansasonline.com/1020women/]
Arkansas Surgeon General Dr. Kay Chandler joined Sanders at the signing ceremony Thursday, saying the governor's executive order is "just common sense."
"Governor Sanders' executive order is smart on a number of counts," said Chandler, who is also an OB-GYN. "It stands up to those who try to erase women in the name of political correctness. In this administration, I know our governor won't let political correctness get in the way of science."
Sanders' executive order comes two days before the Central Arkansas Pride Festival kicks off Saturday in North Little Rock. Organizers expect thousands of LGBTQ+ Arkansans and their allies to attend this weekend's event after last year's festival drew more than 10,000 people.
Dolores Wilk, executive director of Central Arkansas Pride, which describes itself as a nonprofit, volunteer-based organization that has been building a welcoming community for LGBTQIA+ Arkansans for more than 11 years, said the executive order "is very exclusionary to nonbinary and trans people."
"This is science. The human experience is more than just biological male-female," Wilk said. "There are third genders, there's multiple identities, and that concept is critical to the human experience. And if anyone is versed in medicine and mental health, they will recognize that."
Wilk said Sanders is invited to come to the Central Arkansas Pride Festival and parade so the governor could meet "our community, because we welcome everybody across the spectrum."
Information for this article was contributed by Aaron Gettinger of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.