This Thursday, the CDS-PP questioned the government about the use of the expression “people who menstruate” instead of “women” in a questionnaire promoted by the DGS, saying the chosen expression was “controversial” and “disrespectful to women.”
In a question published by the party on Thursday, the centrists asked the government whether it believed that “campaigns of this kind should use formulas that do not stimulate unnecessary controversy” and should avoid “dividing society around divisive programmes”.
The project in question is an “online questionnaire” called “Let’s talk about menstruation?”, which aims to “diagnose the menstrual health situation in Portugal” and in which the DGS “invites all people who menstruate to participate”.
The DGS’s choice of words has already prompted a request for clarification from Social Democratic MP Bruno Vitorino, who said that “the change in language stems from the ideology that some defend, not from science.”
The CDS-PP joins in the criticism of the executive power, of which the party is a part, declaring that “only women born with a uterus menstruate until a certain stage of their lives” and that, therefore, “it makes no sense for public authorities to adopt linguistic formulas born from the point of view of social reconstruction that deeply divides society.”
In this issue, the centrists also remember that this is an issue that is not included in the coalition agreement signed with the SDP.
“The three parties have different identities and will continue to honor their history and uniqueness in assessing fundamental values and conscience. But the SDP, SDS-PP and PPM have a culture of commitment, the ability to understand and experience in government,” the party explained in a note sent to journalists.
The Lusa agency, a source in the centrist leadership, guarantees that “there are no problems between the parties,” but only confirms the SDS’s position on this issue.
The same source explains that the centrists’ requests meet “all obligations in terms of institutional loyalty” since they had “preliminary contacts within the government and with the coalition partner”, but that this request arises in “the SDS’s own political space” parliamentary group.
On August 13, in response to a question from Bloco de Esquerda on the same topic, relayed to Público, the office of the Minister of Youth, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, clarified that “people who menstruate” do not only include women, but also “transgender and non-binary people,” which implies “the use of gender-neutral language to refer to menstrual products.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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