Scotish midwifery to ban The word “Mother”

Baggs it seems to echo that awful phrase ‘we are pregnant’. Perhaps uttering said phrase could be made an offence, preferably carrying a heavy sentence.

Alegrias1

So, attacking based on what one thinks a poster has to say rather than what they actually say.

Aye, thought so.

No, just applying what knowledge of a poster we already have to the meagre information that may be in any specific post. We do that all the time in real-life encounters and in how much credence we give to some journalists etc.

Germanshepherdsmum

Baggs it seems to echo that awful phrase ‘we are pregnant’. Perhaps uttering said phrase could be made an offence, preferably carrying a heavy sentence.

I don't think it should be made an offence, gsm; I just think people should try to be unambiguous. Fat chance of that in today's linguistic contortions, I know, but one can wish upon a cloud.

Some thoughts:
When it is said that ‘they’ are pregnant of a couple, several interpretations are possible without further information. If the couple consists of a man and a woman, it means they are expecting (that is, awaiting) the birth of a baby. Only one of them is pregnant. If the couple is two women it begins to get more complicated. ‘They’ are pregnant could have the same meaning as the above example, especially if one of the women is a transwoman, but it could also mean that two biological women are pregnant/expecting: awaiting the birth of two babies. If the couple is a man and a transman, I think it means the transman is pregnant though, as usual, the couple is awaiting the birth of a baby. If the couple is two transmen the same interpretations as for the two women are possible.

I think.

But why use language ambiguously when there are perfectly clear ways of expressing the meaning? I think it’s control freakery.

Baggs

^My very good friends are pregnant ,they are both women ^

I find this ambiguous. Is each of them pregnant or are 'they' pregnant as a couple?

Baggs I did wonder but assumed just one woman is pregnant.
I remember next door neighbour telling me, excitedly, that "We are pregnant" and I thought, no, your wife is pregnant Mike!

Elegran ?

If both women were pregnant they would both get maternity leave. One wouldn't get twice as much because the other got none, unless they both worked for the same employer and arranged this themselves.

I'm still unclear about how a change of wording would help in this situation, though.

If both women were pregnant they would both get maternity leave.

Yes. This is what I was thinking so I was puzzled why there was any kind of question. Then the ambiguity dawned on me.

Actually it's not so much ambiguity as deliberate obliquity.

I have NO time for the "woke" movement who seem to want to ban the truth, and are offended by ANYTHING or ONE whose view differs from theirs.
Some of these folk have never had to sit on an upturned flower pot, in an air raid shelter lit by a candle, wondering how far their life would stretch in front of them! As a child I did, hence my lack of tolerance of weak minded snowflakes.

By all means have concerns about the world about us, but not to take it to ridiculous lengths.
A little tolerance and common sense would benefit all of us.
But, as a departed friend once said,
Common Sense isn't that common anymore.