The scene in the Senate HELP Committee on January 14, 2026 was as shocking as it was instructive: Senator Josh Hawley pressed OB-GYN Dr. Nisha Verma with a simple biological question — can men get pregnant — and the witness repeatedly refused to give a straight yes-or-no answer. What went viral wasn’t just a gaffe, it was a window into how political ideology has seeped into medical testimony and public discourse.
Dr. Verma told senators she “takes care of people with different identities” and called yes-or-no questions a political tool rather than answering plainly, prompting Hawley to insist that the hearing wasn’t about politics but about establishing biological reality. The exchange ended with Hawley bluntly stating, for the record, that it is women who get pregnant — a point of biology that should not be negotiable in a medical forum.
This was not merely theater; it was a symptom. Americans deserve medical experts who speak plainly and defend science, not those who dodge basic biological facts for fear of offending an ideological orthodoxy. When the medical establishment lets identity politics override clear physiology, it erodes trust and puts vulnerable women at risk.
The backdrop to the confrontation was a sober issue: the safety of chemical abortion drugs like mifepristone, which was the subject of the committee hearing. Senator Hawley also raised troubling safety figures during the exchange, noting studies and claims about adverse events that demand serious scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers alike.
Conservatives aren’t interested in humiliating witnesses; we’re demanding honesty and accountability. If medical professionals are going to testify before Congress, they must be willing to answer straightforward, scientifically grounded questions without hiding behind euphemisms or policy talking points.
This moment also underscores a larger principle: public policy and protections for women flow from objective reality, not from fashionable ideology. Lawmakers should safeguard female privacy, safety, and the biological categories that underpin many legal protections, and they should hold experts to the same standard of truth.
Americans should be grateful to senators who refuse to let our institutions be softened into submission by woke language games. Call it courage, plain speaking, or patriotism — whatever the label, the public deserves witnesses who tell the truth, regulators who follow the science, and leaders who will defend women and children from political fads masquerading as medicine.
