Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed an executive order to eliminate what she refers to as “woke, anti-women words” from Arkansas government documents.
The executive order lists several “accurate, female-affirming alternatives” to be used instead of LGBQTI-friendly gender-neutral language, such as using “pregnant woman” or “pregnant mom” instead of “pregnant person.”
Huckabee signed the executive order at a press conference on Thursday with the support of Arkansas Surgeon General and OB/GYN Kay Chandler, Republican politicians Senator Missy Irvin, Representative Sonia Eubanks Barker and Rep. Mary Bentley, who attended the media event.
As seen in the press conference video below, at the 4:25 mark, a reporter asked Sanders “Why now? What’s the particular urgency for doing this?”
Sanders replied: “There’s always an urgency to do the right thing,” and added, “I wish I didn’t have to write executive orders like this” but she claims she has “seen specific instances.”
When asked how many instances of gender-neutral language she has seen in government documents, Sanders got defensive: “Does it matter? If there’s one, is that not enough?” She added: “One instance is enough for me.”
In Spring 2023, the Arkansas Department of Health published a 16-page quarterly newsletter regarding the state’s drinking water. The lead story of the newsletter is titled ‘EPA Proposes New Drinking Water Rules,’ and reports on the discovery of PFAS levels in Arkansas’s drinking water which “can lead to negative health effects on pregnant people and in developing babies.”
Note: Transgender advocacy group Intransitive says the governor’s order “is openly discriminating against her constituents.”
