
Watch: BBC presenter corrects ‘pregnant people' to ‘women'
Martine Croxall, a BBC News presenter, appeared to reject gender-neutral language during a live broadcast.
The news anchor was reading a report from a teleprompter about advice for vulnerable people during heatwaves when she used the term 'pregnant people'.
Immediately afterwards, Croxall added with emphasis: 'Women'.
The apparent correction, during a broadcast on Saturday lunchtime, was endorsed by JK Rowling, the Harry Potter author and gender campaigner, who posted a clip of the incident on X, the social media platform.
'I have a new favourite BBC presenter,' she commented.
The gender-neutral term 'pregnant people' is used by activists who believe biological women who may be pregnant can be men, if they identify as such.
The NHS has been criticised for using terms like '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 that: '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.'
BBC under fire over trans coverage
In April, a story about the death of Jiggly Caliente, a transgender drag queen, referred to the late performer as 'she' throughout, in accordance with the current guidance.
However, the policy has been cast into doubt following the Supreme Court ruling in April that women are defined by their biological gender, not self-identified gender. The BBC is assessing the implication of the ruling for its news coverage.
A statement from the broadcaster in April said: 'In our news reporting, we always aim to deal with issues fairly and impartially and this is informed by our editorial guidelines.'
Last week, Rowling claimed the BBC could no longer be trusted to report on transgender issues after it failed to report that a women-only housing development would be open to biological men.
She wrote on X: 'It's not women-only. Men will be accommodated there if they say they're women.

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The Independent
40 minutes ago
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Efforts under way to evacuate Irish citizens from Israel
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BBC News
41 minutes ago
- BBC News
Diplomatic tightrope on Iran just got more precarious for Starmer
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Assisted dying, abortion, grooming gangs...Britain is morally deformed
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