The Australian:

A parliamentary committee examining the impact of stillbirth on mothers has prefaced its evidence by acknowledging that men who have transitioned or are transitioning to become women should also be part of the conversation around the loss of babies during labour and pregnancy.

What???

Obviously fathers are affected by stillbirths, but that’s not what this says. This singles out fathers who pretend to be women, and what the hell is the point of that?? I can guarantee you that men who pretend to be women are not physically affected by stillbirths the way women are, so what remains? There’s no reason to think fathers who pretend to be women are emotionally more affected than fathers who are just plain humdrum men are. If anything it’s probably the reverse – men who pretend to be women are necessarily self-centered, so they may well be less distraught over a stillbirth than men who are not that type or degree of self-centered.

Despite the medical impossibility of former men ever becoming pregnant or enduring the hardship of miscarriage, one of South Australia’s most senior health bureaucrats opened her evidence to an SA parliamentary committee by reassuring that her use of the terms “women” and “woman” was not intended to be exclusionary in the context of stillbirth.

Well then she might as well have opened her evidence by saying none of her words mean anything.

The select committee has been formed after lobbying from groups representing affected and grieving mothers to examine ways to make the health system more attuned to the needs of women who experience the trauma of miscarriage.

But SA Women’s and Children’s Health Network chief executive Rebecca Graham used her opening statement to the committee last week to reassure intersex and transgender women that they should also feature in discussion around stillbirth.

But they shouldn’t. Intersex maybe, but “transgender” of course not.

“In our discussion today, the terms ‘woman’ and ‘women’ will be used, and this is in line with the current research and evidence,” Ms Graham said. “It is intended to include those with diverse sexualities as well – intersex women and transgender women too. SA Health seeks to acknowledge inclusivity and individual family and community preference and identity in what we are describing.”

But inclusivity and preference and idenniny don’t apply here. It’s wrong to be “inclusive” of men in discussions of the impact of stillbirth on the woman who experiences one.

Ms Graham sought to clarify her remarks when contacted by The Australian. “It is important to acknowledge that anyone can be impacted by the loss of a child through stillbirth,” she said in a statement.

Weasel wording. What kind of “anyone”? You mean just random people? Shove a microphone at someone on the street to ask “Are you ‘impacted’ by the stillbirth of someone you don’t know?”

Anyway it doesn’t matter, because the committee was examining the impact of stillbirth on mothers. The people who have that experience with their bodies. Not everyone, not just anyone, not even both parents, but specifically the mother, because it’s her body that goes through it.