BBC presenter corrects ‘pregnant people’ to ‘women’

London: A BBC News presenter appeared to reject gender-neutral language during a live broadcast.

Martine Croxall was reading a report about advice for vulnerable people during heatwaves when she used the term “pregnant people”. Immediately afterwards, she added “women”, with emphasis and a slight roll of her eyes.

It is understood that the gender-neutral wording was a direct quote from the heat-related study being reported on and was not the wording of the BBC.

The apparent correction, during a broadcast on Saturday lunchtime (Sunday AEST), was endorsed by Harry Potter author and gender campaigner J.K. Rowling, who posted a clip of the incident on X and wrote: “I have a new favourite BBC presenter.”

The gender-neutral term “pregnant people” is used by people who believe biological women who may be pregnant can be men if they identify as such.

The National Health Service has been criticised for using terms such as “pregnant people” and “birthing person” instead of “women” in order to be more inclusive of gender self-identification.

The BBC has no specific policy on the use of gender-neutral terms, but does stipulate that journalists should refer to people using the pronouns of their preferred gender, rather than referring to their biological sex.

The BBC News style guide advises editorial staff: “A person born male who lives as a female would typically be described as a ‘transgender woman’ and would take the pronoun ‘she’. And vice versa. We generally use the term and pronoun preferred by the person in question.”