Lake County Gazette

State Sen. Julie Morrison (D-Lake Forest) is trying standardize pronouns in state law by removing “mother” from the lexicon.

“Amends various Acts concerning children by: replacing certain pronouns with the nouns to which the pronouns refer; replacing certain instances of the word 'biological’" and “deleting certain obsolete language; and making technical and other changes. Effective 60 days after becoming law,” the bill synopsis reads.

Morrison’s bill would make changes to dozens of existing laws.

The Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act would eliminate references to the mothers who birth the abandoned newborn infants, replacing the word with "persons."

For instance, Morrison would change the phrase “in the case of a mother who gives birth to an infant in the hospital” to “in the case of a person who gives birth to an infant in the hospital.”

In other cases, it would eliminate the word "mother" without replacing it.

"A brochure describing postpartum health information for the mother" would be edited to say "a brochure describing postpartum health information." In some cases "mother" would change to "person who gave birth" and "mothers" would change to “persons."

The move follows the Biden Administration’s move toward replacing the term “mother” with “birthing people," Newsweek reported.

Similarly, West Cook News recently reported how Oak Park health director Theresa Chapple refers to mothers as “birthing people” on social media. Morrison and Chapple are among a group of activists who argue that women who identify as transgender men can also give birth but would not be considered mothers.