Between the recent flood of restrictions on reproductive rights in certain states, the matching expansions to access in others, and the 2020 presidential race, it seems like more people are talking about abortion than ever before. And for me, the increase in conversation is great — I help run an abortion fund in New York state and a clinic escorting crew in NYC. The fact that people from my high school are posting stories to their Instagram accounts about supporting these types of organizations is truly wild.

Less than a year ago, most people automatically assumed I worked at Planned Parenthood since that was the only place they knew that “did abortion stuff.” It’s amazing that we’re talking widely, casually, and empathetically about things like the Hyde Amendment, reproductive justice, and emergency Medicaid for pregnant people, but it does bring up something we all need to discuss: the need for inclusive language when discussing reproductive rights.

Everyone Who Gets Left Out of the Conversation

We do pregnant people a huge disservice when we imply with our word choices that cisgender women are the only ones who need reproductive care. Nonbinary people and trans men need the same access to abortion care that I, a cis woman, would need, but their road to that care typically comes with many more potholes and hurdles.

You think it’s hard for cis women who need reproductive care? Add medical transphobia, income inequality, and a red tape hellscape. Trans people who need abortions have to deal with a medical establishment that treats them with indifference at best and outright cruelty at worst. Layer on top of that the bureaucratic mess trans people have to deal with in order to get their ID to match their identity, and you have one hell of a time trying to get access to proper care.

While cisgender people will never truly understand the difficulties that anyone who is trans or gender-nonconforming has in accessing abortion care, we can help make the conversation more inclusive. I do this by replacing the words “pregnant women” with “pregnant people,” for example, in conversation — and most of the time, no one I’m talking to about abortion notices that I don’t restrict the conversation to just women.

The Numbers to Back It Up

Want some actual numbers? I’m a member of the board of directors for the New York Abortion Access Fund (NYAAF), a fund that helps people living in or traveling to New York state to pay for their abortion. NYAAF is committed to helping people get their abortions regardless of their gender — which is why we exclusively use gender-neutral language, having switched over in 2013. Between then and now, our caseload has increased by over 100 percent. NYAAF is working for a world where funds like ours don’t have to exist because abortions are free, but in the meantime, it’s clear from the increase that no one is confused about what we're doing, or put off by the fact that we serve a whole spectrum of genders.

"Not just women seek abortion care, and it's high time we all acknowledged and respected that."

Many other activists, nonprofits, health centers, and other people involved in the fight for reproductive rights are making these changes as well. Calla Hales, the director of A Preferred Women’s Health Center (APWHC), which runs abortion clinics in North Carolina and Georgia, says her offices are going through the process to adopt gender-neutral language.