Scotland’s First Minister has been forced to admit that men cannot become pregnant, leading to questions as to why his Government’s lawyers are currently arguing for “pregnant men” in the Supreme Court. The Telegraph has more.
John Swinney said he did not believe that it was possible for males to bear children, at the same time that lawyers for the Scottish Government presented their case to the Supreme Court that includes references to “pregnant men”.
In a landmark case, For Women Scotland, the campaign group, is seeking to overturn rulings in the Scottish courts that state gender recognition certificates (GRCs) change the legal sex of those who hold them.
Lawyers acting for SNP ministers claim this creates the concept of the “pregnant man” – someone who was born as a female but then acquires a GRC stating she is male and becomes pregnant.
For Women Scotland has urged Britain’s highest court to find that sex is an “immutable biological state” and that the idea that this could be altered by a certification scheme was a “fantasy of legal fiction”.
After delivering a speech in Edinburgh on Wednesday, Mr. Swinney was asked by the Telegraph whether he personally believed it was possible for a man to become pregnant. The First Minister hesitated briefly before replying: “No, I don’t.”
Asked why his Government’s lawyers were therefore arguing it was possible, at a huge cost to the public purse, in the Supreme Court, he said: “I think there’s many complex arguments that have been put forward in the Supreme Court judgment. I don’t think they come down to the simplicity of the question you’ve put to me.”
Russell Findlay, the Scottish Tory leader, said: “John Swinney initially appears to agree with the obvious truth that men cannot get pregnant.
“But when asked why expensive Scottish Government lawyers are arguing that they can, he suddenly starts to obfuscate by claiming that it’s all very complicated.
“Well, John, it’s not complicated. It is a matter of common sense, and biology, that only women can become pregnant.”
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