Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley Called ‘Transphobic’ at Senate hearing
According to UC Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges, the legislator’s approach of questioning during an abortion hearing “exposes trans persons to violence.”
During a Senate hearing on abortion rights on Tuesday, a UC Berkeley law professor informed Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley that his line of questioning was “transphobic.”
The heated exchange started when Hawley, 42, questioned Khiara Bridges, a race and reproductive rights specialist, for clarification on a remark she made about “those with the ability for pregnancy.”
“Would that be females?” Hawley questioned the professor, who was speaking about the abortion restriction case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which spurred the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade last month.
“Many women, cis women, have the capacity for pregnancy,” Bridges responded. “Many cis women do not have the capacity for pregnancy. There are also trans men who are capable of pregnancy as well as non-binary people who are capable of pregnancy.”
“So this isn’t really a women’s rights issue?” questioned the Republican senator.
“We can acknowledge that this issue affects women while also acknowledging that it affects other groups. Those are not mutually exclusive,” She stated.
Bridges continued the back-and-forth, informing Hawley that his line of questioning was “transphobic and exposes trans people to violence.”
“Wow,” Hawley replied, almost sarcastically. “So you’re saying that by inquiring if women can have pregnancies, I’m exposing people to violence?”
Bridges responded by noting that “1 out of 5 transgender persons has attempted suicide.”
Hawley then told Bridges that he didn’t “think men can get pregnant,” to which she replied: “Then you are denying that trans people exist.”
A day after the tense exchange, Hawley posted his take on Twitter while tweeting a story from Fox News. “Every so often the left says what they really think out loud,” he wrote. “Yesterday was one of those moments.”
Other lawmakers have thanked Bridges for refusing to let bigotry toward a vulnerable population go unchecked, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who scoffed on Twitter at “Hawley’s feigned shock at the recognition that he incites violence.”
“The man raised a fist w/ Jan 6th-ers who yelled ‘Hang Mike Pence’ & fundraised off it,” she tweeted. “Now he wants to be all ‘Me?? Opening people to violence??😤'”
In the 2018 midterm elections, Hawley, a former Missouri attorney general, defeated Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. During his three-and-a-half-year Senate term, he has allied himself with far-right extremist ideas, presenting himself as a lawmaker prepared to carry on former President Donald Trump’s legacy.
After Trump was defeated in the 2020 election, Hawley declared that he would refuse to certify the Electoral College vote count in order to keep Joe Biden from becoming President. In addition to promoting electoral fraud falsehoods, he was photographed on Jan. 6, 2021, raising his fist in solidarity with Capitol rioters, an act that cost him his book deal with Simon & Schuster.
Hawley distinguished himself even further from other Republican senators in 2021 by voting against nearly all of President Biden’s cabinet selections and executive appointees.