It was and is clearly true. Many health organizations have style guides describing which words you should or should not use to describe various groups. See for

It was and is clearly true. Many health organizations have style guides describing which words you should or should not use to describe various groups. See for example the American Cancer Society’s (https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/online-documents/en/pdf/flyers/health_equity_inclusive_language_writing_guide.pdf https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/online-documen...) - picked just as the first nicely formatted Google result.