Doctors at the British Medical Association (BMA) have voted to condemn the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the legal definition of sex, describing it as “scientifically illiterate” and “biologically nonsensical”.
This motion was passed by a branch of the BMA, which represents 50,000 resident doctors (who were known as “junior doctors” until recently). It may eventually be endorsed by the organisation as a whole, but not until a vote at its annual conference in June.
The motion, which was voted through at a conference last Saturday (April 26), slams the Supreme Court for failing to consult relevant experts and stakeholders (i.e. trans people), and warns that the ruling will cause harm to the trans, non-binary and intersex communities in this country. It reads: “This meeting condemns the Supreme Court ruling defining the term ‘woman’ with respect to the Equality Act as being based on ‘biological sex’, which they refer to as a person who was at birth of the female sex, as reductive, trans and intersex-exclusionary and biologically nonsensical.”
“We recognise as doctors that sex and gender are complex and multifaceted aspects of the human condition and attempting to impose a rigid binary has no basis in science or medicine while being actively harmful to transgender and gender diverse people,” the statement continues.
The BMA has a solid record of sticking up for trans rights in recent years. In 2024, it rejected the findings of the Cass Review – a controversial report which effectively concluded that gender-affirming care for trans young people should be banned, unless it is part of a clinical trial – and called for the ban of puberty blockers for under-18s to be lifted. As BMA member Dr Vassili Crispi told Dazed last year, “It’s important for the BMA to actually support [trans] patients, because there is significant political backlash within the medical profession. This is also the work of a trade union: we work not only for our colleagues, but also for the benefit of our patients.”
Along with this branch of the BMA, several organisations have come out against the Supreme Court’s ruling, which found that “sex” should be understood to refer to “biological sex” in the context of the Equality Act. According to legal non-profit The Good Law Project, and several other expert commentators, including trans judge Victoria McCloud, the ruling has placed the UK in breach of its obligations under the Human Rights Act.