The NHS has threatened a women’s rights campaigner with legal action over a protest leaflet mocking the health service for treatment of female patients and language about gender.
Kellie-Jay Keen told MailOnline she would defy calls by the Government to take down promotional material she has shared online – despite receiving a legal demand on behalf of Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting.
The gender-critical activist, who runs the group Let Women Speak, shared with supporters a leaflet based on NHS branding – but instead calling it the MHS, for ‘Men’s Health Service’.
It draws attention to NHS departments which have referred to ‘female prostate screening’ and ‘male smear tests’ which she and fellow campaigners say misrepresent biology.
Now she has been sent an official letter instructing her to remove the posters from the internet within weeks or potentially face court action.
The email to Ms Keen, who has campaigned against transgender women using female-only spaces, came from the Government Legal Department saying it was sent on behalf of Mr Streeting.
The Department of Health and Social Care later told MailOnline they would pursue action against ‘unauthorised use of the NHS name’.
Yet Ms Keen, who also goes by the name Posie Parker, said she would not be responding and defied officials to keep up this particular case.
Women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen says she has been threatened with legal action by the Government over a protest leaflet mocking the NHS for its language about gender
She received an email from the Government Legal Department, accusing her campaign group of trademark infringement, on behalf of Health Secretary Wes Streeting (pictured)
The promotional material produced by campaign group Let Women Speak draws attention to NHS departments referring to ‘female prostate screening’ and ‘male smear tests’
The Department of Health and Social Care says the leaflet does not have permission to use the ‘NHS Identity’
Her leaflet, designed to be printed off by campaigners and used at demonstrations, includes phrases such as ‘0 women die every year of prostate cancer’ and ‘The NHS doesn’t know what a woman is’.
It suggests supposed NHS statements such as ‘We’ll cancel your surgery or GP appointment if you don’t go along with this nonsense’ and ‘Your female only ward might have a man or two in it’.
The poster also discusses what it calls ‘male smear tests’, adding ‘0 men die every year of cervical cancer’ and ‘Men are asked if they are pregnant in NHS medical appointments’.
It asks: ‘Can you trust a doctor who doesn’t know what biological sex is?’
The promotional posters were shared on Let Women Speak’s website at the start of this year – and have this week prompted a three-page letter from the Government, starting by addressing the group as ‘Dear Sirs’.
The email sent on behalf of the Treasury Solicitor tells Ms Keen: ‘We require you to cease from using the NHS Identity and provide written confirmation of the same within 14 days of the date of this letter.
‘Should you fail to comply with these requirements my client reserves the right to issue proceedings to protect the legal rights referred to above without further notice to you.
Kellie-Jay Keen, pictured in June 2023 during a Let Women Speak rally in Geneva in Switzerland in June 2023, says she will defy the new threat of legal action over her leaflet
She received an email from the Government this week suggesting potential legal action
‘Should proceedings be necessary it is our normal practice to seek our legal costs and interest.
‘This is a complex area of law, and I strongly recommend that you seek independent legal advice on this issue.’
It accuses her of a ‘clear infringement’ of the Trade Marks Act 1984 with her ‘use of the NHS Trade Mark in advertising materials promoting your business and your “activism pack”.’
The letter says: ‘It is vital that the NHS logo and NHS letters are only used where authorised to protect the goodwill and reputation of the “NHS Identity” which generates high levels of trust and confidence in the public, patients and medical practitioners amongst others.
‘It is imperative that the NHS Identity is protected, and my client is, therefore, obliged to take action to halt unauthorised use even if used inadvertently or without deliberate attempt to mislead.’
Ms Keen has insisted that she made fair use of NHS symbolism and that no one would seriously mistake her material for official health service publications.
She told MailOnline: ‘I’m used to getting a lot of opposition from people saying they’re the opposite sex and imagine someone’s reported me.
‘It’s a sign of the times that something like this would get complaints – I thought it was hilarious and obviously a parody but apparently the NHS thinks otherwise. It’s supposed to be funny.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced last December he would retain a ban on ‘puberty blockers’ for under-18s – opponents of the ban are seen protesting in April 2024 in London
‘I wanted women to be able to print this out, get together and let people see what we’re talking about and what’s going on in their local NHS.’
When asked whether she would respond to the letter threatening potential legal action, Ms Keen insisted: ‘I’m going to say, if they want to sue me they can. Let’s get this all before a judge and have a conversation.’
A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘The NHS logo and the letters “NHS” are registered UK trade marks, owned by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in England, who also owns the logo’s copyright.
‘They may not be used or adapted without the Department of Health and Social Care’s authorisation.
‘We strictly control the NHS Identity and take unauthorised use of the NHS name very seriously.
‘We take action if necessary against cases of potential misuse that are brought to our attention. However, we cannot comment on the details of individual cases.’
Puberty blockers for under-18s with gender dysphoria will be banned in the UK, the Department announced last December – with existing emergency measures banning puberty blockers to be made indefinite.
The Commission on Human Medicines published expert advice that there was ‘currently an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children’.
Ms Keen has insisted that she made fair use of NHS symbolism in her latest online leaflet and that no one would seriously mistake her material for official health service publications
And Mr Streeting said there was a need to ‘act with caution’ and ‘follow the expert advice’ in caring for this ‘vulnerable group of young people’.
He said at the time: ‘Children’s healthcare must always be evidence-led. The independent expert Commission on Human Medicines found that the current prescribing and care pathway for gender dysphoria and incongruence presents an unacceptable safety risk for children and young people.’
That same month it was revealed that the NHS reported treating almost 500 women who were admitted due to problems with their prostate or penis.
At least 482 women were reportedly admitted to NHS hospitals as female despite suffering from conditions associated with male health.
This included 263 women who suffered from hyperplasia of the prostate – a non-cancerous enlargement of the gland that does not occur in biological women as they do not have prostates.
Another 85 were said to have been treated at hospitals in England and Wales for prostate cancer and 48 for ‘disorders of male genitals’, figures for the year to March 2024 show.
Under NHS rules anybody can request to change the gender on their health records and they do not need to have undergone any form of gender reassignment treatment in order to do so.
The health services was accused of ‘pandering to nonsense’ in its collection of such reports.
Wes Streeting has said of the ban on puberty blockers for under-18s with gender dysphoria that there was a need to ‘act with caution’ and ‘follow the expert advice’ in caring for this ‘vulnerable group of young people’.
Conservative MP Sir John Hayes said at the time: ‘You cannot change biology. It is an immutable fact that these conditions only appear in biological men. The fact the NHS is pandering to this is nonsense.’
The NHS said in response: ‘These statistics report the gender registered by patients and therefore include trans women, with further patient details included in their health records.’
Meanwhile, there was anger on International Women’s Day last year as a Care Quality Commission report on NHS maternity services referred repeatedly to genderless ‘people’.
Campaigners accused officials of not only downgrading a hospital trust found to be failing patients but also ‘dehumanising’ women with their choice of language.
The CQC announced it was dropping its overall rating for maternity services at Great Western Hospital in Swindon from ‘good’ to ‘needs improvement’ after an inspection.
Throughout its findings the commission often used the word ‘people’ when referring to those treated at the maternity unit – a choice critics called ‘enraging’.
At other times the word ‘women’ was used but most often in sentences such as ‘women, people using the service and their babies’.
Trina Budge, director of campaign group For Women Scotland, responded by saying: ‘It’s just enraging. Men’s healthcare campaigns have no problem using clear language, but women are constantly dehumanised and reduced to body parts.
Women’s rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen, also known as Posie Parker, is seen here at a Let Women Speak rally in Belfast in April 2023
‘Clear language is really important in medical information but where women are concerned, this is forgotten.
‘There is a long history of misogyny in medicine and of women’s issues being ignored or overlooked – this is the latest iteration.’
There has been a series of controversies over ‘gender-neutral’ phrasing, with NHS bodies themselves criticised for avoiding the words ‘women’ or ‘mothers’.
The NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board was condemned last year as ‘scandalous and cowardly’ after advertising a role to support ‘birthing people’.
And the NHS Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust posted on social media in August 2022 it was seeking ‘birthing people’ to provide feedback on its perinatal services.
Conservative then-Health Secretary Steve Barclay ordered an investigation in February 2023 into new guidelines telling NHS staff to treat all patients as ‘gender-neutral’.
And MPs previously called for ministers to step in after 77 health trusts joined the NHS Rainbow Badge Scheme rewarding them for dropping ‘gendered language’ from policies, forms and signs.
Other gender-neutral terms which have been introduced in the medical profession include ‘chestfeeding’, ‘second biological parent’, and ‘bonus hole’.
