Chris Hipkins has criticised the Associate Health Minister’s move to raise concerns over Health NZ’s practice of avoiding the term ‘woman’ in reference to female patients.
Responding to Hipkins’ comments, ACT MP Karen Chhour says:
“Sometimes the first job of a politician isn’t to speak, but to listen. Chris Hipkins should listen to the women who’ve felt confused and alienated by a health system that refers to them as ‘people with a cervix’ or ‘individuals capable of childbearing’.
“Women don’t want to be erased as a group by a public health system that has an unhealthy obsession with politically correct language. It’s left women feeling disrespected and dehumanised, and I’m glad we’ve now got a Government that is listening.”