Law Professor Accuses Josh Hawley Of Being ‘Transphobic’ In Testy Senate Hearing Exchange

Topline

A Berkeley law professor called out Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) for a “transphobic” line of questioning Tuesday during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the overturning of Roe v. Wade, after the GOP senator criticized her for referring to “people” that can become pregnant as being affected by abortion rather than women.

Key Facts

Hawley used his questioning to ask professor Khiara M. Bridges of the University of California, Berkeley, why she had repeatedly referred to “people with a capacity for pregnancy,” to which she responded that the overturning of Roe v. Wade also impacts trans men and non-binary Americans who can get pregnant, and that there are women who do not have the capacity for pregnancy.

As Hawley continued to challenge Bridges’ word choice, she said she wanted to “recognize that your line of questioning is transphobic and it opens up trans people to violence.”

Hawley pushed back on that assertion and Bridges’ statement that Hawley is “pretending [trans people]

don’t exist,” asking, “I’m denying that trans people exist?”

Bridges responded by asking the senator if he believed men can get pregnant, to which the senator said no, and Bridges noted his answer means, “You’re denying that trans people exist, thank you.”

Hawley asked the law professor if she “runs her classroom” like this and if her students “are … treated like this, where they’re told that they’re opening up people to violence.”

Bridges responded, “we have a good time in my class” and told Hawley he “should join” it, adding, “You might learn a lot.”

Crucial Quote

“We can recognize that [abortion] impacts women while also recognizing that it impacts other groups,” Bridges told Hawley about using inclusive language. “Those things are not mutually exclusive.”

Big Number

Nearly 1 in 5. That’s the number of transgender youths ages 13-24 who have attempted suicide in the past year, according to a Trevor Project study that Bridges cited to Hawley on Tuesday. The professor pointed to that statistic to suggest the harm to trans people that Hawley’s line of questioning could cause.

Key Background

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Tuesday to examine the legal impacts of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which Democrats argued would have wide-ranging, harmful effects while Republicans on the committee celebrated the decision. “We’re here because the Supreme Court has corrected a wrong that has impacted millions of lives,” Ranking Member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Tuesday. Hawley and Bridges’ exchange reflects a broader debate that’s been playing out—including among those who support abortion rights—over whether to refer to abortion as impacting “women” or “people” as the issue dominates the national conversation. Numerous Democrats and advocacy groups have embraced the term “pregnant people” to be more inclusive of the LGBTQ community, with the ACLU noting that using more restrictive wording “excludes people from our understanding of abortion rights, rather than expanding it.” Some have pushed back on that, however, with New York Times op-ed writer Pamela Paul claiming using people instead of women means “women don’t count.”

Further Reading

Is the word ‘women’ being erased from the abortion rights movement? (NBC News)

Why We Use Inclusive Language to Talk About Abortion (ACLU)