CT lawmakers battle over language: “expectant mothers’ vs. ‘pregnant persons’

Hartford Courant - 4/4/2024

In an era known for bitter debates over diversity, state legislators decided Thursday to refer to mothers in state law over “pregnant persons.”

The issue came up when state Rep. Robyn Porter, a liberal Democrat from New Haven, offered an amendment to use the term “expectant mothers” in an otherwise straightforward bill on state funding.

After 35 minutes of often-passionate debate, lawmakers voted 32-16 to use the term mothers as an unusual coalition of Republicans and the legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus combined to pass the measure. All 16 negative votes came from Democrats.

Normally, the budget-writing appropriations committee focuses on the fiscal impact of state spending, but lawmakers battled longer over the terms than any other issue among 23 bills as lawmakers raced to meet a deadline. Some lawmakers said the committee went off on a tangent and lost focus on the overall bill that concerned funding for mental health services for children and their caregivers.

Porter and others often spoke in personal terms about family and culture.

“My children call me mother, Ma, mommy. It depends on the day,” Porter told lawmakers. “I don’t answer to pregnant person or birthing person. That’s not what I answer to. A huge part of my identity is wrapped around being a mother and a grandmother. So I find it an affront that someone would try to tell me that what they’re putting on paper for the purpose of policy covers me when I’m telling you that it doesn’t.”

Porter added, “We want to talk about discrimination? Well, I’m here to tell you that Black people in America know that very well. … This is where I really get frustrated in this building because what we say is dismissed, disregarded, disrespected. … I’m always asked to compromise when I come to the table, and I’m expected to do so. … We were mothers first. Yes, times are changing, and I’m fine with that because that’s life. … But you don’t get to grow, and you don’t get to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion and exclude me and the other women like me who identify as mothers. You don’t get to do that.”

Porter added that some women “want to be called mothers. What’s wrong with that?”

The main proponent of the bill’s original language was Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, a West Hartford Democrat who co-chairs the human services committee, where the bill originated.

“Pregnant person is actually the inclusive term,” Gilchrest said. “It is a gender neutral term, and it would encompass expectant mothers, pregnant women. As we talk about DEI, this is the direction we are hoping to move in in this state and ideally across the country. And so the term pregnant persons is the more inclusive term, and so I would ask my colleagues to oppose the amendment.”

State Rep. Rep. Tercyak, a veteran New Britain Democrat who is not seeking re-election this year, said, “In the country right now, part of our big divide is cutting people out of what should be available to everybody. … If we say mother, we should say every single other thing that comes under that heading of pregnant people. … I hate that I have to vote on this, but I’m going to vote no because I worry that it is going to be used against us in the future.”

Multiple lawmakers from the state’s largest cities joined in favor of the amendment.

State Rep. Geraldo Reyes, a Waterbury Democrat who is a leader on the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus said, “Culturally, as a Puerto Rican person, there is nothing more sacred than a mother. … There is only one mother. … Just as I opposed the word Latinx, I oppose the word expecting person.”

Rep. Minnie Gonzalez, a Hartford Democrat who supported Porter’s amendment, said, “It’s nothing against the LGBT community. It’s nothing about them. … Nothing against them. We support them. … We recognize that they have rights, but where are my rights? I have the right to defend my rights.”

Some lawmakers said they were flabbergasted by the extended debate.

“I’m just astonished by some of the things that are being said,” said Rep. Anthony Nolan, a New London Democrat. “In Black culture, who really are ingrained with that word mother, for us to go home and call our mother something other than a mother, we would end up with a slap across the face. … We’re not removing anything. We’re just asking to add something that is dear to those that are speaking in regards to it, especially in the Black culture.”

After voting in favor of the amendment, Sen. Joan Hartley of Waterbury, one of the longest-serving legislators, spoke to two fellow Democratic supporters and said, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph” into a microphone that was still turned on as a Democrat then pushed the microphone to the side.

Porter and others said that they viewed the measure as a “friendly amendment,” but the opponents said it was not a friendly amendment.

“I’m not here to change hearts and minds,” Porter said. “This is just me putting forth an amendment on behalf of people who identify as I do.”

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com