At a January 2026 Senate hearing on abortion medication safety, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked OB-GYN witness Dr. Nisha Verma: “Can men get pregnant?” Verma paused, citing patients with “different identities.” Hawley pressed for a biological yes or no. The clip went viral.
Earlier exchange: Verma said yes-no questions “are a political tool.” Hawley replied they are “about the truth.”
And for the record, it’s women who get pregnant, not men. We are here about the safety of women and science that shows that this abortion drug causes adverse health events in 11% of cases. That’s 22 times greater than the FDA label. Another fact you haven’t acknowledged, and yet you won’t even acknowledge the basic reality that biological men don’t get pregnant. There’s a difference between biological men and biological women. I just, I don’t know how we can take you seriously and your claims to be a person of science, if you won’t level with this on this basic issue, I thought we were past all of this. Frankly, I can’t believe we’re still here talking about this.
It is not polarizing to say that women are a biological reality and should be treated and protected as such. That is not polarizing. That is truth. It is also, by the way, the United States Constitution, which offers unique protections to women in a variety of circumstances as women, and your refusal to recognize women as women and men as men, is deeply corrosive to science, to public trust and yes to constitutional protections for women as women.
— Senator Josh Hawley, U.S. Senate hearing, January 14, 2026 (source)
Language note: Biological males (XY, no uterus) do not get pregnant. Some transgender men (assigned female at birth, still have a uterus) can. Both sides of that fight are laid out below.
Optional: embed video — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJFuhgeNbSE
Why this matters
Congress was supposed to discuss abortion drug safety. Instead the clip became a referendum on sex, gender, and trust in medicine — with real prenatal patients caught in the middle.
Point
Biology for policy: Hawley tied the question to women’s health data — pregnancy complications, abortion drug side effects, FDA labels. If experts will not say only females conceive, critics ask how lawmakers can write sex-specific protections.
Plain language builds trust: many Americans think “man” and “woman” mean bodies, not only identity labels. Refusing a yes-no answer looks like politics overriding science in a medical hearing.
Legal stakes: court fights over abortion, sports, and single-sex spaces turn on definitions of male and female.
The 11% claim: Hawley cited research that a particular abortion medication produces adverse events in 11% of cases — far above an FDA label figure. (Label: senator’s cited statistic — verify independently.)
Counterpoint
Not a hypothetical gotcha: OB-GYNs treat transgender men who retain uteruses and can become pregnant. Medical groups use inclusive terms (“pregnant people”) so those patients get care.
Sex vs. gender: biological male does not get pregnant; trans man (female sex at birth) sometimes does. Critics of Hawley say he merged those categories to create a clip.
Yes-no as political tool: Verma argued such questions are weapons in culture war. Doctors who serve stigmatized groups may pause because a wrong sound bite ends careers.
Hearing drift: the session was supposed to focus on medication risk. Detractors say minutes on “can men get pregnant” distract from evidence both sides could debate — study design, ER visits, follow-up care.
Sources and further reading
- https://www.hawley.senate.gov/watch-hawley-grills-pro-abortion-doctor-over-refusal-to-say-men-cant-get-pregnant/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJFuhgeNbSE
- https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2020/03/health-care-for-transgender-and-gender-diverse-individuals
- https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/health-equity/inclusive-language-guide
Viewpoints are presented for commentary and discussion. Claims should be checked against the linked primary sources.
My commentary
I don’t think Verma was confused about anatomy. I think she saw a bear trap and stepped around it. I also don’t think Hawley was asking for a lecture on trans health — he wanted a clip. Both things can be true. If Congress wants to protect women, talk about study data, ER protocols, and informed consent — not five minutes of cable-news bait.