Abstract
After the Supreme Court of the United States returned authority to regulate abortion to the state level in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, many states began to redraft their statutes, either protecting or eliminating abortion access. In doing this, the Supreme Court intensified demands for gender-inclusive language in reproductive healthcare legislation and court opinions. The ongoing shift in discourse acknowledges the reproductive healthcare needs of transgender and nonbinary (“TGNB”) people, given the already limited access to general healthcare. This comment emphasizes the importance of genderinclusive language in the American legal system, arguing for a departure from anatomy-centered language in legal contexts and advocating for adopting gender-inclusive language in statutes and court opinions relating to reproductive issues.
The analysis examines the language of the leading Supreme Court cases on reproductive healthcare and compares state laws relating to reproductive healthcare with criminal and tort statutes. Further, the comment discusses the impact of heteronormative language in the broader healthcare landscape for TGNB individuals while highlighting the role of the legal community in this issue.
While acknowledging potential counterarguments from differing perspectives, ultimately, this article underscores the urgency of language reconstruction to ensure the inclusivity of the LGBTQIA+ community in the ongoing fight for reproductive rights acknowledgment within the legal community and beyond.
Recommended Citation
Murphy Cavanaugh,
‘More Than a Woman to Me’: The Need for Gender Inclusive Language in Court Opinions and Statutes Relating to Abortion and Reproductive Health,
102 Neb. L. Rev. 453
(2023)
Available at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nlr/vol102/iss2/6