Democrat Governor Wants To Remove ‘Mothers’ And ‘Pregnant Woman’ From State Health Code 

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is quietly trying to erase women and mothers from his state’s health code. 

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The Democrat’s administration has removed female terminology and replaced it with transgender-inclusive language in a proposed overhaul to Pennsylvania’s health code. The terms “pregnant woman” and “mother of a newborn” have been replaced with “pregnant or postpartum individual” throughout the 502-page proposal, which was announced on August 8. Women who have given birth to a stillborn baby are no longer called a “mother” but are instead referred to as a “postpartum individual” in the proposed changes.

Shapiro is pushing to give Pennsylvania’s Department of Health centralized police powers under the guise of “disease control measures” through expansive proposed regulatory changes to the health code, as The Daily Wire previously reported. These expanded powers include the ability to enter homes and schools without a warrant, access confidential medical records, and impose statewide school mask mandates for disease prevention. The Department of Health reports to the governor’s office, meaning this change would give Shapiro — and his successors — the ability to single-handedly implement draconian policies across the state.

“Somehow, in the midst of hundreds of pages of new government mandates, the department also found it necessary to erase words like ‘pregnant woman’ and ‘mother’ in the regulations and replace them with terms like ‘pregnant individual,’” Pennsylvania lawmaker Michele Brooks told The Daily Wire.

Transgender activists believe men can give birth and that obstetricians and gynecologists should use transgender inclusive language when delivering female healthcare. The American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG) told doctors to “make their offices inclusive and inviting to all individuals who need obstetric or gynecologic health care” and to “educate themselves and their medical teams about appropriate language and the health care needs of transgender patients,” in an online statement.

“Some postpartum transgender individuals may not identify as ‘mothers;’ thus, obstetrician–gynecologists and other health care professionals should be mindful of the language they use. It may be appropriate to use a more neutral term, such as ‘parent,’” wrote ACOG in a March 2021 committee opinion titled “Health Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse Individuals.”

Randall Wenger, chief counsel of the Independence Law Center, told The Daily Wire that Shapiro’s language changes reveal a “triumph of ideology over biology.”

“The changing of language in the [Department of Health] regulations represents the triumph of ideology over biology,” Wenger told The Daily Wire. “This change of language doesn’t reflect reality; it obscures it. It erases female identity as a stable category in favor of a fluid concept of gender. The Shapiro administration is so concerned with affirming transgender identity that it can no longer recognize the realities of biological sex. The department cannot pretend to fight dangerous diseases with its delusions about gender.”

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Shapiro ardently supports transgenderism and allowing children access to harmful sex-change interventions. 

“I want to say, especially to our trans children, I see you and I love you,” Shapiro said at a July 2024 pride event in Harrisburg. “I’ve gone to court to protect our trans kids and I’ll continue to stand in the town squares and town halls in every community across Pennsylvania — rural, urban, and suburban — and proclaim loudly and clearly that we love all God’s children, including our trans children.”

Shapiro joined a group of state attorneys general in his capacity as Pennsylvania’s Governor and the Trump administration for banning pediatric transgender medical procedures such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries, in August 2025. 

Shapiro created the Governor’s Advisory Commission on LGBTQ Affairs in that engages in LGBTQ activism throughout Pennsylvania and provides the administration with legislative and policy recommendations. Ashleigh Strange, who identifies as “they/them,” is the executive director of the Advisory Commission on LGBTQ Affairs and is paid an annual salary of $106,289, according to a government transparency website.

“We are an advisory commission, so there are 30 people all across the Commonwealth who are dedicated to getting the information from the LGBTQ community to the governor’s office. And everyone in the governor’s office and all of the agencies under his purview are dedicated to making sure that the LGBTQ community is safe, seen, and heard,” Strange said in a July 2026 social media post. “We know that our communities are under attack. The governor knows this.”

Governor Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Department of Health did not respond to The Daily Wire’s requests for comment.

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