The Corps is removing the term PREG from fitness reports for pregnant Marines as it moves forward in its endeavor to overhaul Marine publications and service documents to be more gender-neutral.
The term PREG previously was used to denote pregnant or postpartum Marines on fitness reports because of their exemption from body composition standards.
In an administrative message, or MARADMIN, disseminated on Wednesday, the Corps says it will no longer use that term and instead will use the code EXMP.
The new EXMP code will indicate two categories of Marines on fitness reports: pregnant and postpartum Marines and Marines with medical conditions that may be causing unexpected weight gain.
The Corps says the changes are being implemented to support the Corps’ drive to “overhaul its official documents and publications to be more gender-neutral,” the MARADMIN reads.
During the September meeting of Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, or DACOWITS, then-Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Glenn Walters told members that the Corps was speeding up its review of nearly 107 documents and publications to make them more gender-neutral, Military.com had reported.
“By next year, we ought to be more than halfway through ... all of our publications,” Walters said. “Things like referring to the commander in the masculine — moving on, it will just refer to the commander. So those are the nuances that get unconscious bias out of it.”
Shawn Snow is the senior reporter for Marine Corps Times and a Marine Corps veteran.