Thread by @rebelyarns

This is what I'd say if I were a Labour frontbencher being asked "is it transphobic to say only women have cervixes?"

First of all, I want to say that I don't think my friend and colleague Rosie Duffield is transphobic, and I'm very sorry that she doesn't feel able to join 1/n

us at Conference this year. I will be working hard with the rest of my front bench colleagues over the next year to defuse the tensions around this issue and ensure that everyone can have their say without fear of abuse.

Now, to your question, I think the issue originally 2/n

arose in the context of discussing how to ensure that as many women as possible access the free cervical cancer screening programme we have in place in this country - cancer screening is a fantastic achievement of the NHS and it saves many lives every year. 3/n

In that context, my understanding is that there are significant numbers of women in this country who need to be reassured and encouraged to take up the offer of regular smear tests. One of the ways we can do that is to use simple, plain language that everyone can understand. 4/n

So I do think it's important to use the word 'women' in publicity for cervical smear testing, because everyone understands what that means - whereas not everyone (according to research) will so easily grasp a phrase like 'people with a cervix'. 5/n

Having said all that, I absolutely understand that there are people who don't wish to be referred to as women who also need access to this screening programme - transmen and nonbinary people who were registered as female at birth. I'm completely in support of 6/n

additional publicity and taking care over the accuracy of medical records for that population, so that they are not in danger of missing out on this important service. As I say, we need to defuse tensions over this, because it's important to take account of everyone's needs 7/7