During a U.S. Senate hearing Tuesday on the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, a Bay Area law professor called a Republican senator “transphobic” for questioning on who can become pregnant.
During the hearing in Washington, D.C, UC Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges used the phrase “people with a capacity for pregnancy” when describing the impact of limiting and banning access to abortion in the U.S.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri questioned why she used the specific phrase to describe who can become pregnant rather than simply saying "women."
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“You’ve referred to people with a capacity for pregnancy — would that be women?” Hawley said.
Bridges, who has expertise in race, class and reproductive rights, said that many women who identify with their assigned sex are able to become pregnant, while many cannot.
She went on to describe others who have the capacity to become pregnant, outside of the gender norm.
“There are also trans men who are capable of pregnancy as well as nonbinary people who are capable of pregnancy,” she said, referring to people who don't identify with a specific gender.
Hawley responded by saying, “So this isn’t really a women’s rights issue?”
Bridges went on to call the GOP senator’s line of questioning "transphobic," saying "it opens up trans people to violence."
Bridges said the Missouri lawmaker was denying trans people exist with his comments and asked him if he believed men could become pregnant.
Hawley replied no.
“Then you’re denying that trans people exist," the UC Berkeley professor said.
Gillian Branstetter, a strategist with the American Civil Liberties Union, told NBC News it's "deeply telling Sen. Hawley would rather engage in the erasure of transgender people than learn about the harms of the abortion bans he backs."
Watch the entire exchange between Sen. Hawley and Bridges in the video above.
