Julian Castro, former US secretary for Housing and Urban Development who now seeks the Democratic Party's nomination to become their candidate for the 2020 US presidential election, has apparently landed in hot water after explaining whether transgender men should have the right to federal abortion funding, at a debate in Miami.
"Yes, it would", Castro said, as quoted by Breitbart, when asked if his health plan would cover abortion. "I don’t believe only in reproductive freedom, I believe in reproductive justice. And, you know, what that means is that just because a woman — or let’s also not forget someone in the trans community, a trans female, is poor, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have the right to exercise that right to choose. And so I absolutely would cover the right to have an abortion".
However, while the candidate was apparently referring to transgender people who were born female, his choice of words made it look like he meant the exact opposite – people born male who identify themselves as female – a fact that quite a few social media users quickly seized upon.
Some also focused on finding flaws in Castro's logic.
And a number of people simply seemed less that thrilled by the candidate's speech.