If you look at your birth certificate, nine times out of ten, there is a sex designation on the paper. Well, the American Medical Association is vying to change that. The AMA is facing backlash for calling for sex designation to be removed from birth certificates in a new report.
“Assigning sex using a binary variable and placing it on the public portion of the birth certificate perpetuates a view that it is immutable and fails to recognize the medical spectrum of gender identity,” a portion of the AMA report reads.
The report continues, “Participation by the medical profession and the government in assigning sex is often used as evidence supporting this binary view. Imposing such a categorization system risks stifling self expression and self-identification and contributes to marginalization and minoritization.”
And of course, social media was full of plenty opinions on the subject when WebMD tweeted about the subject.
“Truly the entire world is losing its mind; even science-trained physicians,” Pastor Miguel Núñez commented in a WebMD article in response to the tweet announcing the AMA’s decision.
Dr. Robert Jackson, spoke against the measure as well in the article.
“We as physicians need to report things accurately,” Jackson said. “All through medical school, residency, and specialty training we were supposed to delegate all of the physical findings of the patient we’re taking care of. I think when the child is born, they do have physical characteristics either male or female and I think that probably should be on the public record. That’s just my personal opinion.”
No.
I am proudly having a baby boy 💙 https://t.co/dNIK3JCsP0
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) July 31, 2021
Another doctor, Sarah Mae Smith, MD, from California, in support of the AMA, noted that the report mentions a time when race designation on birth certificates lead to discrimination as well.
“Thankfully, a change was made to obviate at least that avenue for discriminatory practices,” she said. “Now, likewise, the information on sex assigned at birth is being used to undermine the rights of our transgender, intersex, and nonbinary patients.”
Smith goes on to say that, “We need to recognize gender is not a binary but a spectrum. Obligating our patients to jump through numerous administrative hoops to identify as who they are based on a sex assigned at birth primarily on genitalia is not only unnecessary but actively deleterious to their health.”
What do you think about this hot topic? Should gender be removed from birth certificates or not? Sound-off and comment below. We want to hear from you!
