“People (of a certain generation anyway) can be forgiven for being a bit confused with social change” a reader says. “The gender-neutral term ‘birthing parent’ will no longer appear on Medicare forms with the government intervening to ensure the term ‘mother’ is used instead,” reports SBS. “Forms asking for a child’s “birthing parent” when enrolling for Medicare were rolled out as part of a trial program in three hospitals, launched by the previous Coalition government. But Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten’s instruction to ensure the forms use “mother” has been criticised by equality advocates, with one saying “it does not describe the experience of men and non-binary people, who give birth to children too”. The term ‘mother’ is again allowable! ”A solution may be to call everyone ‘it’ Topical’s correspondent says, “it’s very inclusive and no one will be offended”.
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