Campaigners have accused St John Ambulance of ‘erasing’ women after issuing official CPR guidance referring to ‘people with breasts’.
Gender critical activists say the charity’s online advice on how best to use defibrillators insults women by failing to name them while still using ‘men’ in contrast.
St John Ambulance today faced an online backlash as their website page was widely shared, titled ‘How to do CPR and use a defibrillator on a person with breasts’.
It comes after a series of similar controversies over the use of ‘gender-neutral’ language by charities as well as health authorities.
St John Ambulance also advises people carrying out CPR on not only removing bras but also chest binders, often used by young transgender people to flatten and hide the appearance of breasts.
The CPR page on the UK charity’s official site states in a subheading: ‘People with breasts are statistically less likely to receive bystander CPR than men, let’s change that.’
A series of studies have suggested that women are less likely to receive CPR assistance from bystanders than men when suffering suspected cardiac arrests.
And a report by St John Ambulance themselves raised similar concerns last October, highlighting their ‘alarming new research that shows that a third of Brits are afraid to give CPR to a woman because they are worried about touching breasts’.
The charity St John Ambulance has provided this online page offering advice on giving CPR
Gender critical campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen, who runs the group Let Women Speak, is among the critics of the charity’s use of language which she says ‘erases’ women
The ambulance charity’s step-by-step guide on using defibrillators prompted a backlash
The charity went on to say: ‘And the same proportion, a third of men say they are concerned they will be accused of “inappropriate” touching when giving chest compressions to a woman in cardiac arrest in public – versus 13 per cent of women.’
Campaigners have now accused St John Ambulance of undermining support for women with the phrasing of the CPR guidance shared online.
Gender critical activist Kellie-Jay Keen, who runs the group Let Women Speak, said she was ‘disgusted but not surprised’ by the terminology on the CPR page.
She told MailOnline: ‘People are understandably miffed as to why a woman would need to be erased from an association with the word “breasts”.
‘It’s a very odd place now where whenever the word “woman” should be used, we’re now usually supplanted with some dehumanising language.
‘Women are already disadvantaged – for St John Ambulance to now do this doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know who it’s for.’
The Women’s Rights Network campaign group said in response that St John Ambulance needed ‘immediate medical treatment’, adding: ‘They’ve developed chronic amnesia and forgotten the word for half the population.
The St John Ambulance guide is headlined ‘How to do CPR and use a defibrillator on a person with breasts’ before giving eight steps to follow on providing cardiopulmonary resuscitation
The wording of the advice has sparked criticism on social media site X, formerly Twitter
‘Those “people with breasts” are women They have no problem with saying “men” so why don’t we merit the same respect?’
Maya Forstater, chief executive of campaigning charity Sex Matters, said: ‘It beggars belief that some of the worst offenders when it comes to butchering factual, sex-based language are medical organisations.
‘Sex-based language is particularly important in public health messaging, which needs to be clearly understood by people with learning difficulties or English as a second language.
‘To claw back credibility, St John Ambulance should revoke this guidance and reissue it using factual and commonly understood language.
Responses online as the CPR guide was more widely shared today included ‘Disgusting’ and ‘So @stjohnambulance knows what a man is but doesn’t know what a woman is? They think the opposite of a man is “a person with breasts”?’
Among the advice given by St John Ambulance in the organisation’s step-by-step CPR guide is: ‘When the helper returns with a defibrillator, ask for it to be switched on and to take the pads out, while you continue CPR.
‘They should remove or cut through clothing to get to the casualty’s bare chest. This includes removing bras or binding if the person is wearing one. The helper needs to cut through the bra or binder up the middle or side of the clothing.’
The charity had last October launched a new campaign on CPR, saying it wanted to ‘raise awareness of the issue facing women’ – after a survey found 23 per cent overall agreeing they were less likely to give CPR to a woman in public than a man.
St John’s Ambulance offered advice on cutting through clothing when administering CPR
England and Chelsea footballer Millie Bright and DJ Ashley James backed the launch of what St John’s Ambulance called ‘the world’s first educational bra’, bearing the message: ‘It’s OK to Save My Life.’
MailOnline contacted St John Ambulance for comment and the charity has now amended the title of its CPR guidance page to instead say ‘How to do CPR and use a defibrillator on women and people with breasts’.
A St John Ambulance spokesperson said this afternoon: ‘According to research women are less likely than men to receive lifesaving CPR in public because they are afraid to touch breasts.
‘For International Women’s Day this week we revisited our CPR Bra campaign that focused on saving more women’s lives to remind people of the first aid steps to improve the women’s chances of survival.
‘This reluctance to give CPR affects every “body” with breasts and the CPR guidance on our webpages seeks to convey this important message.
‘We have reviewed the title of the CPR guidance on our website and have improved the wording to ensure it reflects everybody St John seeks to help.’
NHS bodies have previously been criticised for avoiding the words ‘women’ or ‘mothers’ and there was anger on International Women’s Day last year as a Care Quality Commission report on NHS maternity services referred repeatedly to genderless ‘people’.
Campaigners accused officials of not only downgrading a hospital trust found to be failing patients but also ‘dehumanising’ women with their choice of language.
Studies including a St John Ambulance survey have suggested that women are less likely to be given CPR assistance than men when suffering suspected cardiac arrests (stock image)
The CQC announced it was dropping its overall rating for maternity services at Great Western Hospital in Swindon from ‘good’ to ‘needs improvement’ after an inspection.
Throughout its findings the commission often used the word ‘people’ when referring to those treated at the maternity unit – a choice critics called ‘enraging’.
At other times the word ‘women’ was used but most often in sentences such as ‘women, people using the service and their babies’.
The NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board was condemned last year as ‘scandalous and cowardly’ after advertising a role to support ‘birthing people’.
And the NHS Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust posted on social media in August 2022 it was seeking ‘birthing people’ to provide feedback on its perinatal services.
Conservative then-Health Secretary Steve Barclay ordered an investigation in February 2023 into new guidelines telling NHS staff to treat all patients as ‘gender-neutral’.
And MPs previously called for ministers to step in after 77 health trusts joined the NHS Rainbow Badge Scheme rewarding them for dropping ‘gendered language’ from policies, forms and signs.
Other gender-neutral terms which have been introduced in the medical profession include ‘chestfeeding’, ‘second biological parent’ and ‘bonus hole’.
