Mick Hartley

You might have thought that the GMC, at least, would be immune to the Stonewall-isation of medical language, and would stick to the science – but apparently not:

The General Medical Council has removed all mention of “mothers” from a maternity document for its staff.

Updated internal guidance for GMC employees who become pregnant, seen by The Telegraph, has replaced female-specific language with gender-neutral terms throughout, using phrases like “surrogate parent” instead of “surrogate mother”.

Its internal menopause policy document has also been updated and is stripped of references to women.

The GMC, which serves as the independent regulator for doctors and aims to “improve medical education and practice across the UK”, updated both documents in May 2023….

The GMC maternity document states: “This policy applies to all staff members who are pregnant.

“If you are the surrogate parent this policy applies. The GMC offers maternity to all colleagues going on maternity leave.”

However its previous iteration from April 2015, stated: “If you are the surrogate mother this policy will apply.”

The GMC’s menopause policy, a separate document, also suggests menopause doesn’t only affect women.

“We are committed to ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of all staff by providing support for colleagues experiencing the menopause,” it says.

“We will work proactively to make adjustments where necessary to support individuals experiencing the menopause.”

The GMC defines menopause in the document as “a natural event in some colleagues’ lives during which they stop having periods. It usually occurs between the ages of 45 and 55 and typically lasts between four and eight years. However, each person’s experience will differ….

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at Sex Matters, the campaign group, said: “It beggars belief that one of the UK’s leading medical organisations has erased the word ‘mother’ from its maternity policy, particularly at a time when other public bodies are starting to consider how they roll back from similarly misguided policies.

“Has the GMC not seen the growing body of evidence that sex-based language is crucial in maternity healthcare? And did it not notice that 1,400 clinicians wrote to the NHS earlier this year, demanding that the word ‘mother’ be reinstated in women’s health advice?

“By rewriting its maternity policy to be gender neutral, the GMC is sending a hostile message to women in medicine. Sex-based language needs to be reinstated as a matter of urgency.”

Heather Welford from With Woman, a group of midwives and other maternity clinicians activists, said: “The decision by the GMC to obscure the fact that only women have babies is ideologically driven, medically inaccurate and unhelpful to women and babies. It moves away from the drive for plain English and makes medical literature unclear.

“It can confuse healthcare messaging, potentially harming women and babies. It is also insulting to women, for whom the identity of ‘mother’ is often very important.

“For medical professionals, the sex of a person is salient to their health care. Reputable organisations such as the GMC should not be changing language on a population level to pander to ideologically driven pressure groups.”