Julian Castro tried to be as inclusive as possible about women’s right to abortion in Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate — but flubbed the language of transgender biology.

The former Housing and Urban Development secretary said his health-care proposal would fund abortions because, he said, “I don’t believe only in reproductive freedom, I believe in reproductive justice.”

And also justice for trans women who want abortions, he started to elaborate.

“What that means is that just because a woman — or let’s also not forget someone in the trans community, a trans female — is poor, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have the right to exercise that right to choose,” he said.

But a “trans female” or “trans woman” is not a person who could have an abortion — that would be a “trans male / man.”

Trans females are born with male bodies including reproductive organs, and do not have the uterus needed to carry a child (but they do not identify as men, regardless of their body). Trans males, as females at birth, have the necessary biological equipment to become pregnant and have an abortion.

Neither Mr. Castro, the MSNBC moderators, nor anybody on stage corrected Mr. Castro’s language about trans people, despite questions being raised during the debate about LGBTQ rights.

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