Maternity Flight Suits Weren't Introduced by Biden
The Claim
The Biden administration introduced flight suits for pregnant women to the air force.
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Emerging story
On Women’s Day, President Biden gave a speech about the role of women in the armed forces. Among other things, he said, “We’re making good progress designing body armor that fits women properly; tailoring combat uniforms for women; creating maternity flight suits.”
Fox News host Tucker Carlson did a segment on Biden’s comment, asserting that Biden cares about keeping the military politically correct than worrying about China. John Oliver proceeded to make a segment about Tucker Carlson himself, quoting Carlson’s remarks on maternity flight suits. Some people shared the claim on social media:
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation found that Biden didn’t introduce maternity flight suits to the military. In fact, they were introduced during the Trump administration in 2019. Testing began in 2020. Biden’s use of the word “creating” likely refers to the production of the aforementioned maternity flight suits.
Maternity flight suits were used before the program was introduced. However, these were jury rigged by pregnant personnel using their own resources. According to Air Force’s website, there are currently about 400 pregnant pilots.
