Last week, women of all ages and from all walks of life packed into Committee Room G in the House of Lords determined to talk about something that has left most of them angry, bewildered, nervous and frankly extremely concerned.
It’s an issue that is being fiercely debated on social media, particularly on Twitter. In the past few months my Parliamentary mailbox has been bulging at the seams, and it was obvious someone needed to provide a forum for these women to air their grievances. Grievances for the most part that I find wholly justified.
The topic causing so much rage is single sex wards in hospital. Biological women, that is people born female (you have to be very precise these days) are furious with the laissez-faire attitude that seems to exist amongst many senior managers within the NHS.
These biological women are angry that women can go into hospital and find themselves sharing a ward with a woman who used to be a man, or man who is about to become a woman, or a man who plans to become a woman.
Now, of course, once a man undergoes the full surgery to change his sex, she is perfectly entitled to be a patient on a women’s ward. I think most agree on this. But until that happens, the “woman”, no matter what hormones they might be taking or how pretty and feminine their clothes, are still men.
For most of us, we believe sex is something you are born with. It’s biology, pure and simple. But some argue that gender is different. It’s simply a social construct and can be changed.
But the transgender lobby disagree, arguing that sex is also just a social construct. A label that can be changed at any time.
Whatever the right and wrongs of this crucial argument, there is sadly increasing evidence that male predators are using gender self-selection to obtain access to vulnerable women in hospitals, prisons, public toilets and so on, where they can commit unspeakable crimes.
I decided to investigate the National Health Service’s policy on single sex wards. As I told last week’s visitors, for a start, Sections 1.3 and 1.4 of the recently published guidance on this matter should be upheld.
The sections make it very clear that patients ought not to be compelled to share mixed wards or hospital facilities. Clear as that. So, what’s the problem?
Despite the clarity of this guidance, the NHS has for many years controversially allowed mixed sex wards. The service has been fined on several occasions for breaching the ban, often because it was accepting the right of an individual patient to determine whether he was a she, without considering the interests of the remaining patients in the ward.
This policy has meant the statistics are being slewed. Increasingly, crimes committed by men who identify as women are being recorded as crime committed by women! This leads to a false conclusion that men are no more dangerous than women.
My guests at last week’s meeting expressed much disquiet.
Women who have suffered domestic or sexual violence at the hands of men feel vulnerable if placed in mixed wards or asked to use joint lavatories.
Other guests at the meeting said they had evidence that patients entering a hospital ward are frequently not warned that it may be mixed sex. Patients were told they could elect to receive same sex care for intimate medical procedures, but this was rendered meaningless if a man identifying as a woman conducts the examination.
Organisations which provide training on ‘trans’ policy and practice have a track record of hostility towards women, complained some. Examples were provided of “correct” language being imposed, some bordering on the ridiculous. For example, “chest feeding” in place of breast feeding!
Of course, sex segregation is not just relevant to hospital wards. It’s also an issue affecting schools, public conveniences, refuges, prisons, and sports facilities.
After more than an hour of debate, it was obvious this is an area that needs to be looked into as a matter or urgency and clarity sought on many related issues.
I appealed to all my guests to send written evidence to me so that I can forward it to the Secretary of State for Health. I will also ensure there are follow-up meetings.
We have a duty to protect vulnerable women from harm, and at the moment not enough is being done. This must change, and we Parliamentarians are the ones who can help bring this about.