'Pregnant Man' Gives Birth to Girl
July 3, 2008 -- Thomas Beatie, the transgender man who made headlines as the so-called "pregnant man," gave birth Sunday to a healthy baby girl, ABC News has learned.
The birth, at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, Oregon, was natural, according to a source, who added that reports that Beatie had had a Caesarean section are false.
"She's really cute, really pretty,'' the source told ABC News Thursday afternoon.
The source said Beattie was resting and the family was focusing its attention on the new baby.
Born a woman, Beatie, 34, who had had his breasts surgically removed and legally changed his gender from female to male, leaped to prominence around the world in April when the wispy bearded man revealed he was pregnant.
Despite years of taking hormones and living outwardly as a man, Beatie maintained that he retained his female sex organs because he intended one day to get pregnant.
"I actually opted not to do anything to my reproductive organs because I wanted to have a child one day. I see pregnancy as a process, and it doesn't define who I am," Beatie told Oprah Winfrey in April.
"I feel it's not a male or female desire to have a child. It's a human need. I'm a person and I have the right to have a biological child," he said.
Beatie was caught on tape leaving the hospital. He was not carrying the infant.
A woman who appears to be a nurse carried a combination car seat-baby carrier with a white blanket over it. Beatie walked a few yards behind her. The new dad walked easily, although he appeared tired, and despite the warm weather he wore a white hooded sweatshirt along with sunglasses and black shorts. Someone opened the car door for him.
Beatie was impregnated with sperm from a donor. His wife, Nancy, inseminated him at home with a device she said was like a syringe without the needle. They bought it from a veterinarian and it is typically used to feed birds.
