Vaccine Safety in Pregnant Persons vs. Vaccine Safety in Pregnant Women

[GoodTaste]

On Preliminary Findings of mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine Safety in Pregnant Persons

Source: New England Journal of Medicine

What is the difference between "Vaccine Safety in Pregnant Persons" and "Vaccine Safety in Pregnant Women"? Naturally, only women can be pregnant. Using "pregnant persons" rather than "pregnant women" sounds as if men can be pregnant too. Also, "pregnant persons" sounds a bit pedantic. I am not very sure.

 

[probus]

Many people still believe that male or female is a simple dichotomy. In other words, they think that everybody is either one or the other. They are wrong -- the reality is much more complex than that. Some people are born with what is called in medical jargon ambiguous genitalia. Moreover, there is the whole question of what people feel or perceive about their gender. Some people feel they are neither, or partly one and partly the other, or sometimes one and sometimes the other.

As far as English is concerned the important thing is to keep our language neutral and inclusive. That is why the NEJM used persons.

 

[5jj]

Here is a video in which a couple tell their neighbours that that they are going to have a baby - the husband is pregnant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlKbpIzx1FM

 

[jutfrank]

I really don't think the authors used the word persons in order to be inclusive. Besides, they use women in plenty of places in the text.

It's quite customary to use the word persons in such formal medical texts.

 

[Tdol]

Also, "pregnant persons" sounds a bit pedantic. I am not very sure.

Some people recommend the usage, others condemn it. It has become one of those terms in the culture wars.

 

[SoothingDave]

I really don't think the authors used the word persons in order to be inclusive. Besides, they use women in plenty of places in the text.

It's quite customary to use the word persons in such formal medical texts.

No, they are definitely doing it to be "inclusive" and to show their superiority to the benighted fools who think only women get pregnant.

 

[Skrej]

They're not mothers nowadays anyway, because that's exclusionary. They're a "birthing person". :roll: