BBC Says Host Broke Rules by Replacing ‘Pregnant People’ With ‘Women’

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) says presenter Martine Croxall broke network rules by changing the phrase "pregnant people" to "women" during a live broadcast.

No, this isn’t satire.

"London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has released research which says that nearly 600 heat-related deaths are expected in the U.K.," Croxall said in June, while introducing a news item about a study on protecting vulnerable people in hot weather

"The research says that the aged, pregnant people… women… and those with pre-existing health conditions need to take precautions."

In a properly functioning society, Croxall’s correction—and it is a correction—wouldn’t be a story. But in Britain, her segment sparked widespread outrage. 

According to the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU), 20 viewers filed complaints about Croxall’s reaction. The ECU then determined that she breached the BBC’s editorial standards of impartiality.

Imagine caring so much that a woman called a group of pregnant people "women" that you filed a complaint with her employer. Also, imagine how cowardly that employer would have to be to agree with and support the complainers.

"The phrase ‘pregnant people’ was followed by a facial expression which has been variously interpreted by complainants as showing disgust, ridicule, contempt, or exasperation," the BBC said in a news release Thursday.

Is that so?

The ECU added that Croxall’s expression and the praise she later received online showed she was sharing a "personal view" on a "controversial matter."

"Even accepting this explanation, however, the ECU considered the facial expression which accompanied the change of ‘people’ to ‘women’ laid it open to the interpretation that it indicated a particular viewpoint in the controversies currently surrounding trans identity, and the congratulatory messages Ms. Croxall later received on social media, together with the critical views expressed in complaints to the BBC and elsewhere, tended to confirm that the impression of her having expressed a personal view was widely shared across the spectrum of opinion on the issue," the news release said.

It’s unclear what punishment, if any, Croxall will face for breaking BBC rules. The network declined to comment to Fox News Digital. But the fact that changing "pregnant people" to "women" is now considered a "controversial matter" shows just how detached from reality things have become in the U.K.

Then again, news networks in the United States—like MS Now—aren’t much better. Though no one there would even think about calling pregnant women "women."

Croxall, however, did gain a new supporter. "I have a new favourite BBC presenter," Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling said on X.

Me too.

This is actually the second time Croxall has supposedly violated BBC rules. In 2022, the ECU ruled that she risked disclosing her personal view on the Conservative leadership election after declaring that it was "all very exciting" amid breaking news that Boris Johnson would not stand. The BBC responded by temporarily taking her off air.