‘Birthing people’? Missouri Rep. Cori Bush steps on her own message

Missouri Rep. Cori Bush had important points to make in her congressional testimony about how Black mothers can be treated by the health care system.

But when her valid concerns were undercut by her reference to mothers as “birthing people,” Christmas came early for Fox News.

The St. Louis Democrat complained on Twitter that, “Republicans got more upset about me using gender-inclusive language in my testimony than my babies nearly dying.”

Subpar medical care is a lot more important than word choice, we agree. But when outrage over culture and language is virtually all today’s GOP is selling, why wrap your message in words guaranteed to make it harder to hear?

Promoting inclusive wording is a good thing, and long overdue. But the reaction can’t have been a surprise.

Some phrases do more harm than good, like “defund the police.” Words can either open doors or close them. They can lift you up or let you down.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing Bush addressed was on a topic of monumental importance: “Birthing While Black: Examining America’s Black Maternal Health Crisis.” But as Newsweek noted, “the term ‘birthing people’ was the only thing that seemed to gain real traction on Twitter, where the term began to trend, likely because of its polarizing controversy.”

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Democrat of Massachusetts, also tweeted about expanding Medicaid coverage for “birthing people.”

Pressley couldn’t have been more right when she added that everyone “should be listened to and treated with dignity and respect.”

Bush’s own story proves the urgent need for such respect.

After a doctor dismissed Bush’s prenatal concerns about pain and severe nausea and vomiting, she went into premature labor and her first son was born at a precarious 23 weeks: “His ears were still in his head, his eyes were still fused shut, his fingers were smaller than rice, and his skin was translucent. A Black baby — translucent skin. You can see his lungs. He could fit within the palm of my hand.”

A second pregnancy also was touch-and-go — and one doctor, she said, callously suggested she just let it go. She didn’t, and was able to give birth a second time.

Bush’s voice in this crisis of care is irreplaceable. But if fewer people heard her than they might have, that was her choice.

This story was originally published May 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.