‘Biological women’: The phrase that turned a bipartisan museum bill into a culture war

A women’s history museum that once enjoyed broad bipartisan support is now a political battleground — and a single word may sink it.

House Democrats plan to vote against legislation to establish a Smithsonian National Women’s History Museum on the National Mall after Republicans amended the bill to limit the museum’s mission to “biological women.” The House is expected to vote Thursday.

Leaders of the Democratic Women’s Caucus announced their opposition, saying Republicans discarded years of cooperative work. Reps. Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico, Hillary Scholten of Michigan and Emilia Sykes of Ohio accused the GOP of giving President Trump and his allies “unregulated power” over the museum’s location and content.

“A museum about women, fought for and supported by women, should not be controlled by one man,” they said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed back, reading the provision aloud and saying, “The addition of the word biological made them all run for the hills.”

Majority Leader Steve Scalise called Democratic opposition “void of common sense.”

The bill’s Senate prospects are uncertain. It needs seven Democratic votes to clear a filibuster — support that now looks unlikely. Republicans also advanced the women’s museum bill without a companion measure to establish a Smithsonian museum honoring American Latinos, drawing additional Democratic criticism.

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• House Democrats drop support for women’s history museum after GOP limits focus to biological women

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