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Men Can’t Get Pregnant—No Matter What Yale Says

In this particular paper, Sariego argues that pregnancy isn’t just something that happens to female bodies, and that trans women—biological males—can also “experience” pregnancy through three ideas: transition, performance, and labor. They claim that only by reimagining pregnancy through a “transfeminist” lens can we move beyond outdated ideas rooted in biology.

It may sound bizarre—and it is—but this kind of thinking is becoming more common in academic circles. And because these ideas are starting to affect real-world medicine and policy, they need to be taken seriously—and challenged.

A strange feature of our times is the frequency with which radical and bizarre ideas start in the academic world, are tolerated in that genteel and detached atmosphere, and then suddenly appear in our schools, town meetings, and hospitals. It matters not that ordinary people can identify the thoughts as stupid, clearly untrue, ridiculous, and harmful.

They will be imposed upon us.

So yes, we need to pay attention. To this as well: Is pregnancy a disease? A normative approach

“In this paper, we identify some key features of what makes something a disease, and consider whether these apply to pregnancy. We argue that there are some compelling grounds for regarding pregnancy as a disease.”

For a witty examination of this “scientific” effort, don’t miss William Briggs’ post. (“An eight-month pregnant runner cannot participate in a marathon, a dysfunction. But a one year old cannot either, a dysfunction. Is youth a disease?”)

Academic Radicalism

Shot:

Chaster:

(Follow Christopher Rufo on X — annoyingly, tweets can’t be embedded here on Substack.)

Never forget:

Walter Kern on X (2021): “What’s happened, very simply, is that the advertisers, pharma, have totally overtaken the programming. They no longer sponsor it, they completely create it. All boundaries have been abolished.

Now we have our new Pope! Phil and I will talk all about it on this week’s episode of The Home Front, our podcast, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it!

We have a lot of reasons to be hopeful. The calm, the dignity, the Latin… the name!

I wrote last week that the new Pope, whoever he might be, must urgently rid the Church of the scourge of Synodality, which is not so much one item on the agenda as the means of injecting the agenda into the Body, in a sort of toxic mRNA message to edit the cells, the faithful.

Instead, we need the normal Christian immunity of the Gospel, preached in season and out.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider, in this interview, says the same about the Gospel. Pope Leo addressed the cardinals after his election. What he said had many dignified, orthodox, and consoling features, as Bishop Schneider affirms.

However, when Pope Leo exhorted the cardinals to give “complete commitment to the path that the universal church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council,” Bishop Schneider soberly commented:

“I think a pope should not speak so, because our first complete commitment is to Jesus Christ's Gospel; this is [the] first commitment of every pope, every bishop, and [every] disciple of Christ.” The magisterium — the pope, the bishops — are not above tradition, not above the word of God, but below, serving it… his first task [is] to confirm, to strengthen all the faithful as Jesus gave [the faith] to Peter… and to [Pope Leo] also, this is his first task and in view of the evident confusion…

Bishop Schneider also gave voice to, as I say, my concerns about Synodality. After mentioning the ways this word could be construed to mean something traditional, having to do with the bishops’ collegial work in upholding the Gospel, he goes on to express the danger:

“The threat is to transform, especially in recent years, the life of the church, the meaning of the church, to a kind of human, parliamentary style community; with so-called Synodality, it's a kind of code word or a ‘trickery’ expression to conceal behind it a new completely and alien understanding of church, of the Catholic Church … transforming it… to protestant, ‘anglican’- fashioned community where people… simply discuss and establish what is true… an ‘anthropocenterism’ which is a a very clear sign and characteristics of the modern world…

And then Bishop Schneider said something I think is so insightful about this “committee” form of governance, as opposed to the firm hierarchical structure handed down through the ages:

… and this I consider also a danger: a sitting church, not a dynamic church… not a a church which is going towards the Lord in a procession of faith… [to] proclaim Christ the only savior to those who do not know him; therefore Synodal methods waste time, waste money… [are] alien to the Apostolic spirit….

But do listen to the whole thing.

By the way, I think it’s totally valid to be vocal about our expectations and prayers for a return to normal, orthodox Catholicism. As Pope Leo has already experienced pressure from the progressive wing of the Church and will continue to hear from them, it’s vital that the defenders of Scripture, Tradition, and the perennial Magisterium keep up expressions of exactly what we know is right.

(For more of Bishop Schneider’s excellent insights, be sure to read Christus Vincit (affiliate link), a wonderful introduction to the man and to the Catholic faith.)

Thanks for reading along with me! I welcome your comments!

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