Why “Sex Assigned at Birth” Has No Place in Routine Healthcare Data Collection

It’s time to rethink how we ask about bodies

Healthcare systems love shortcuts. In the name of efficiency, accuracy, and “keeping people safe,” we collect data points that are easy to grab, easy to sort, and supposedly tell us what we need to know.

For decades, one such shortcut has been routinely asking for “sex assigned at birth” (SAAB) — the assumption…