How should we address pregnant patients in clinical practice?

Abstract

Language, both spoken and written, plays a critical role in shaping clinical communication, documentation, research integrity, and patient trust. In obstetric care, terminology must align with biological reality, uphold clinical accuracy, respect patient identity, and increasingly, comply with federal policy. As of January 2025, Executive Order 14,168 reframes gender-inclusive language as a threat to women's dignity, safety, and well-being, asserting that "efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women" and it mandates sex-based language, reversing prior encouragement of gender-inclusive terminology. This shift has created ethical, operational, and legal tensions for clinicians, who must reconcile conflicting expectations from federal mandates, professional guidelines, and patient needs. Several institutions have already experienced funding losses due to noncompliance with evolving mandates, underscoring the stakes of aligning clinical language with policy. This manuscript examines the impact of these developments on obstetric language, drawing on legal frameworks, ethical principles, and professional standards. A PubMed analysis through 2024 reveals the continued predominance of "pregnant woman" (60%), increasing use of "pregnant patient" (20%), and a growing presence of inclusive terms (20%). While sex-based terminology facilitates regulatory compliance and clinical clarity, inclusive language may improve trust among gender-diverse populations. We propose a balanced context-sensitive framework, called Balanced Pregnancy Language, which aligns documentation and billing with federally mandated sex-based terms while allowing patient-preferred, inclusive language in clinical interactions and nonstructured documentation. The Balanced Pregnancy Language model preserves scientific clarity, ensures compliance, and supports ethical commitments to respect patient autonomy. Given recent federal shifts affecting documentation standards and data collection practices, the Balanced Pregnancy Language model offers a balanced and ethically grounded solution. It enables clinicians to meet sex-specific regulatory requirements while respectfully affirming patient identity, thereby preserving both institutional integrity and the ethical delivery of care.