A tense exchange unfolded between a Republican Senator, Josh Hawley, and Dr Nisha Verma, an Indian‑American obstetrician-gynaecologist, at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee session titled “Protecting Women: Exposing the Dangers of Chemical Abortion Drugs”. The event was held at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington. The Republican Senator asked Dr. Nisha Verma a direct question that “Can men get pregnant?”. The discussion then spiralled into a gender and biological debate
Dr Verma was testifying before lawmakers. She is a senior adviser to Physicians for Reproductive Health and spoke about the safety of abortion pills. She said that “Medication abortion has been rigorously studied and proven safe and effective in over 100 high‑quality peer‑reviewed studies,” and highlighted that more than 7.5 million people in the United States have used the drugs since their approval in 2000.
Dr Verma declined a direct answer to “Can men get pregnant?”
When Hawley questioned her with “Can men get pregnant?” Dr Verma hesitated and declined to give a simple yes or no. She responded, “I’m not really sure what the goal of the question is,” and later explained, “I do take care of people that don’t identify as women,” pointing to her experience caring for patients with diverse gender identities.
Hawley insisted the question was about basic science and evidence “The goal is to establish a biological reality. This is about science and evidence. I’m asking you. This is not a hypothetical question.” He pressed Verma to answer “based on the evidence,” saying, “Can men get pregnant? That’s a yes or no question.”
Hawley attacked Dr Verma by saying ‘women get pregnant’
Verma pushed back, arguing that yes/no questions like that are often used as “political tools” and that she was “trying to reduce the complexity of the question.” She also said, “I would be more than happy to have a conversation with you that is not coming from the place of trying to be polarised.”
Hawley continued to criticise her stance, said that “For the record, it’s women who get pregnant and not men,” and adding that Verma’s refusal “to recognise men as men and women as women” was “deeply corrosive to science, public trust, and constitutional protection for women as women.”
He further added that, “You don’t even acknowledge the basic reality that biological men don’t get pregnant. There is a difference between biological men and biological women. I don’t know how we can take you seriously and your claims to be a person of science.”
