On Sunday, in what appeared to be a reference to the Roe news, Midler tweeted, “WOMENS OF THE WORLD! They are taking away our rights to our bodies, our lives and even our names! They don’t call us “women” anymore. They call us “people who give birth” or “menstruating people” and even “people with vaginas”! Don’t let them turn you off! Every person on earth owes you!” The tweet sparked a firestorm of controversy, garnering more than 20,000 responses, a significant number of them criticizing Midler for using language that some consider anti-trans by excluding transgender people who need abortion care. The most extreme backlash saw some users accuse Midler of being a “TERF” or trans-exclusive reactionary feminist, an epithet that has been used against JK Rowling. Some even floated the idea of ​​boycotting the upcoming Hocus Pocus sequel on Disney+, in which Midler reprises her role as Winifred. Among the usual Twitter backlash, writer Katie Mack summed it up with Midler’s tweet, “The term ‘pregnant’ includes pregnant women and also people who are pregnant but not women. It doesn’t erase women in any way. it’s just more comprehensive. I am a woman. I have friends who are not women but can get pregnant. The language that includes them doesn’t hurt me.” The backlash against Midler comes at a time when some states are trying to limit health care options for transgender people. In February, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state health departments to begin investigating parents who allow their transgender children to undergo gender-affirming surgeries. Abbott described such surgeries as “child abuse”. On Tuesday, in an attempt to provide context to her original tweet, Midler shared a New York Times op-ed by Pamela Paul on her Twitter account. Paul’s article argued that “the far right and the far left have found the one thing they can agree on: Women don’t count.” Sharing the link, Midler tweeted, “PEOPLE OF THE WORLD! My tweet about women was in response to this fascinating and well-written piece in the NYT on July 3rd. There was no intention of anything exclusionary or transphobic in what I said. it wasn’t about that.” He continued, “These were the same old women – ALL WOMEN – tolerated by the cavemen. Even then, men got top billing.” The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Midler’s reps for comment.