HHS Employees Must Watch Pronouns, Documents Show

Last June, when Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Xavier Becerra appeared before the Senate Finance Committee to testify on the Biden administration’s fiscal 2022 budget, one brief interchange stood out: Toward the end of the hearing, Oklahoma GOP senator James Lankford confronted Becerra on an odd shift in the White House budget proposal’s language. “I noticed you changed a term in your budget work,” Lankford said. “You shifted, in places, from using the term ‘mother’ to ‘birthing people.’ Can you help me get a good definition of ‘birthing people’?”

Becerra demurred. “Well, I’ll check on the language there, but I think if we’re talking about those who give birth, I think we’re talking about, uh . . . I don’t know how else to explain it to you.” The removal of the term “mother,” the HHS secretary maintained, “simply reflects the work that’s being done.”

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Nate Hochman

Nate Hochman was a staff writer at National Review.

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Last June, when Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Xavier Becerra appeared before the Senate Finance Committee to testify on the Biden administration’s fiscal 2022 budget, one brief interchange stood out: Toward the end of the hearing, Oklahoma GOP senator James Lankford confronted Becerra on an odd shift in the White House budget proposal’s language. “I noticed you changed a term in your budget work,” Lankford said. “You shifted, in places, from using the term ‘mother’ to ‘birthing people.’ Can you help me get a good definition of ‘birthing people’?”

Becerra demurred. “Well, I’ll check on the language there, but I think if we’re talking about those who give birth, I think we’re talking about, uh . . . I don’t know how else to explain it to you.” The removal of the term “mother,” the HHS secretary maintained, “simply reflects the work that’s being done.”