Leave Us Women To It

November 2024

Jessica - Speech at the Global Protest Against Sex Self-ID - New Zealand

I feel very privileged and honoured to be asked to speak today on a topic that is very dear to my heart.

I am a midwife. A fierce protector of women as they move through the inner realm of the feminine, pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood. I am a space holder. A witch with innate knowledge to journey with these women. 

Only women can understand and experience what this means. Not men. And not women who believe they are men but want to take advantage of their reproductive organs to indulge their narcissistic fantasies.

I saw a statement online recently; "We must normalise the pregnant man". I'll tell you what - no fucking way.

If you have decided you are a man, had your breasts removed, take testosterone and live your life as a man, they why would you want to do something so intrinsically female as getting pregnant? Only women do that. And you have stated you are a man. Men do not have babies. That is a biological reality. How confused must you be?

Leave us women to it.

When I was a very new, young midwife about 14 years ago, I received a page on my pager, from someone who I thought was a woman; their name was one that I would associate with a woman. When I phoned this person back, I could tell something wasn't right - the voice was older and more masculine. However, how was I to be sure? The situation the person was describing was unusual and complicated, and the only way to work out what was going on, was to send them for an ultrasound. This person was claiming to be finally pregnant, in their 50s, but didn't know how far along they may be. Everything in my being told me that something wasn't right, but I needed to ensure I'd done my due diligence and provided the person with the best care. Thankfully I had the foresight to cc their GP into the ultrasound.

A few days later, I had a phone call from the ultrasound practice advising me that they had scanned my client, and that there was no way the client could be pregnant as they didn't have a uterus. While they didn't confirm that they had investigated further, they suggested that the client was a man. I was initially confused, then reality kicked in. When I realised what was going on; that I had been fooled. I felt embarrassed to have put the sonographer in that situation, and for not having listened to my inner intuition.

I'm not sure what happened next, if I phoned his GP or his GP phoned me, but I was informed that he had done this many times, to many GPs and midwives, as he had an obsession with "getting pregnant". He had multiple scans each time wasting tax payers money, health professionals time and valuable appointments that actual biological women needed.

As the health professional who ordered this ultrasound, I was legally required to inform them of the results. I had to phone this person and inform them that there was no way that they could be pregnant, as they didn't have a uterus and it appeared they were, biologically, a man. I ended up being abused by this person and told I was a terrible midwife, I was wrong, I didn't know how to do my job and that they were going to prove to me that they were pregnant and complain to the Midwifery Council about my care. I ended up having to end the call due to the abuse, and for weeks I was worried about the repercussions from this person as they knew my name and my clinic address which was publicly available. Were they unstable enough to turn up and find me? While I had empathy for the clear mental distress this person was in, they were none the less an abusive male and impacted on my life in a significant way, where I doubted my judgement and felt for my safety for a period of time.

As a midwife, I observe sex at birth. If you have a penis, you are male and if you have a vagina, you are female. While I acknowledge that there are chromosomal deviations from the usual sex chromosomes resulting in intersex humans, the incidence rate is about 1:500. I feel deeply for these people. The confusion, they must experience is immense. However, most people born with a sex chromosome abnormality still identify as one sex or the other. I would know. I was married to a man with Klinefelter syndrome, which is XXY chromosomes. While he had an extra X chromosome, he wasn't any more female, as the Y chromosome defined he was male. While he had wider issues associated with his condition that caused the demise of our marriage, he was, none the less, a man. A shitty one. But a man.

This brings me to my biggest concern with self ID laws and observing sex at birth. I'm aware that there are parents who choose to bring their children up as non binary and allowing their child to "choose their gender" as they develop, but what does that mean for me as a health professional? Could parents now demand that no sex be observed at birth and recorded on the legal document that I need to submit to Births, Deaths and Marriages? There is the provision to select "Indeterminate" on this form but that is for ambiguous genitalia where no sex can be determined at that time, and requires follow up. Can that be ambushed now?

Is this the slippery slope? Is this where gender identity and ID politics are going to be pushed into a new sphere of parents rights of identifying sex at birth and choosing a gender or "non gender" for their child who is an innocent victim in this war.

The Midwifery Council is already on that train. They were attempting to remove the words woman, wahine, mother and pepi from the scope of practice. Thankfully the backlash was too great for them to ignore and they backed down - part way at least. They are bullying midwives into an inclusive culture that is completely exclusive of women. Who are their audience? Who do they service? Women. But they will gaslight you into believing that anyone other than women can give birth. As a woman and a feminist I am ashamed. I am embarrassed to be a part of a women dominated profession providing health care and midwifery to women that say "men can do this too".

This is the one thing women can do. Of all of the wonderful things humans can do in the world, only women can grow a human. Only women can birth a human. Only women can breastfeed a human.

I've heard repulsive analogies before "what about women who have had hysterectomies, are they no longer women?" And what about women who have cancer, or go through early menopause, are they no longer women?

Are you not a critical thinker? Can you not reason with the logic yourself? Those women are still women. By their nature, they can get pregnant and reproduce. Just because there has been some abnormality in the process, or they have suffered a horrendous outcome like cancer, does not take away the fact that they are biological women. And how fucking dare you use them for your argument.

I'll leave you with the powerful words of Helen Reddy when she sang "I am woman, hear me roar, in numbers too big to ignore".

Thank you.